The Most Popular, Most Quickly Adopted Gadget In History

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

If we include non electronic things ... I guess the stick
took several thousands of years to catch on and be widely used.

I suggest that the gadget which made the fastest inroads into consumer households
was the Rubik's cube. From no-one to damn near everyone in less than a year.

The NY Times has an interesting article about the resurgence of the cube...

NY Times
DOUGLAS QUENQUA
8/7/12

Rubik’s Cube Twists Back Into Limelight

He took 1 minute 46 seconds to study a jumbled cube,
then pulled a blindfold over his eyes and started to twist.
Forty-eight seconds later, Riley lifted his blindfold and smiled.
<snip>

And in a sign of how affectionately the cube is viewed in techie culture,
Google in 2010 donated its computing resources to determine “God’s number,”
the minimum number of moves required to solve the cube from any position,
if one uses the most efficient method.
In 1980, it was thought to be 52; Google’s computers place it at 20.
<snip>