Consumers didn't ask for a lot of technologies. I don't recall consumers screaming for computers that would give us TV and social media, as well as spam. I recall BBS's being mostly the domain of computer geeks during the late 80's and even the early 1990's. That was only 25 years or so ago -- which was when the WWW became a mainstay for people.
I don't think consumers were screaming for FM. It didn't take off until the late 1970's really, and it was on many radios for at least 30 years before then.
A lot of technologies had been around for a while and then took off, once enough people saw the benefit.
HD was not marketed to the consumer well, and the manufacturers were not really on board until a few years ago, when reasonably priced radios were available, but by then the ship mostly had sailed. I include HD FM as well. I love listening to some of the FM HD2 channels, but I think they won't be around too long, especially if they acquire the scrutiny of digital royalty people.
You are off on the dates, but your point about many technologies not being "asked for" by consumers is valid.
Things like the cotton gin were asked for as planters looked for better ways to harvest. Cars were not asked for, although some inventors tried to convert the steam rail engine to an un-railed vehicle. The care was initially the subject of much negative criticism.
We did not know we needed radio. In fact, until the Titanic disaster caused legislators to require radio on ships, there was skepticism.
So innovation is sometimes caused by need and sometimes by developer "what if" curiosity.
As to timing, FM was growing in the mid-60's and the non-duplication rules from the FCC made it really begin to prosper in the late 60's. As a personal note, I had a high rated and very successful, profitable FM in 1966. By the mid-70's more than half of all listening was on FM. However, it was not until the early 70's that receivers started to have FM in their majorities. The reasons why FM did not succeed earlier have to do with issues like the Armstrong patents, lack of an AFC system and high cost.
Dial-up services like Compuserve´and Prodigy go back to the early 70's. I subscribed and used CIS daily from Puerto Rico in 1975. There were many dial-in BBS services, but the long distance charges from my location were prohibitive... but they existed in the 70's
The evolution of computers was very slow at the personal (PC) level. My first one in '75 used an OS on paper tape and had no permanent memory in the system; every start-up was a total reload. The average person had no use for one, and those of us who had one used them as learning and experimental devices. It would be several years before, still in the 70's, I could use PCs for our in-house research... and for budgets and, shortly after, music logs.
As technology developed, people found things that could be more efficiently and better done with computers. Just as cars developed with the limitations of a lack of paved roads and other infrastructure like gas stations.
