Biggest tech device flops of the past 25 years!!!
Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2020 9:36 am
My contenders:
- HD DVD: Ultimately was "crowded out" by Blu Ray
- Mini Disc: An abortion developed by Sony. Yeah, great idea. Make a disc player that is completely incompatible with consumers' existing (full size) CD collections.
- HD Radio: In the home device sales have been disastrous since day one, no effort was made to incorporate the technology into standard AM/FM receivers manufactured by Yamaha, Denon, Sony, Onkyo, Pioneer, and others, and less than 10 percent of consumers who actually have HD radio head-ends in their automobiles spend even one iota of time with an HD-only radio station over the course of an entire week.
- 3D HDTV: Remember when Best Buy and others were schlepping this stupid concept in the early 2010's? I think Comcast had two or three 3D channels in its lineup for about 15 minutes; one was ESPN. The technology fizzled quickly and quietly.
- Windows Phone: This debacle + Windows 8 put Microsoft in serious turmoil. Too few compatible third party apps. Many "apps" were nothing more than links to web sites. Microsoft also exerted tight control over all aspects of hardware and user experience, which annoyed the manufacturers with whom it initially partnered. The manufacturers felt Microsoft's mandates and licensing fees were eating into their profit margin. Android did a much better job cultivating relationships with third party manufacturers and with app developers, causing these constituencies to tell Microsoft, "See ya. Don't let the door hit ya in the ass on the way out!"
- Windows 8: The Metro UI, hidden edge screen menus, pathetically feature light native email app, and focus on touch vs. mouse input added up to one gigantic clusterfuck. The functionality of Windows 8 was particularly miserable for business users, the vast majority of whom wisely steered clear of Windows 8.
- Windows Vista: At least most folks remember Windows 8, and at least it survived on store shelves for several years, but my God, Windows Vista was arguably a bigger flop than Windows 8! From what I've read, Vista caused gigantic software & system issues. Crashes and loss of internet connectivity were commonplace.
- Galaxy Note 7 by Samsung : This phone was "on fire"...literally!!! The batteries would overheat and the phone would start smoldering. A certain model of Samsung washing machines were also known to explode when in the spin cycle around the same time period. NOT a good period for Samsung! These occurrences were very surprising, because until that point, Samsung's reputation for producing quality products was fairly strong.
- (Emerging nominee) Smart refrigerators: This is the most fucking stupid thing EVER. Who the fuck stands in front of their refrigerator all day?! Sorry, but I do not need a refrigerator that plays video, displays pictures, pops up emails & text messages, and allows me to interact with social media apps.
Would love to hear other nominees worthy of consideration that I may be overlooking!
- HD DVD: Ultimately was "crowded out" by Blu Ray
- Mini Disc: An abortion developed by Sony. Yeah, great idea. Make a disc player that is completely incompatible with consumers' existing (full size) CD collections.
- HD Radio: In the home device sales have been disastrous since day one, no effort was made to incorporate the technology into standard AM/FM receivers manufactured by Yamaha, Denon, Sony, Onkyo, Pioneer, and others, and less than 10 percent of consumers who actually have HD radio head-ends in their automobiles spend even one iota of time with an HD-only radio station over the course of an entire week.
- 3D HDTV: Remember when Best Buy and others were schlepping this stupid concept in the early 2010's? I think Comcast had two or three 3D channels in its lineup for about 15 minutes; one was ESPN. The technology fizzled quickly and quietly.
- Windows Phone: This debacle + Windows 8 put Microsoft in serious turmoil. Too few compatible third party apps. Many "apps" were nothing more than links to web sites. Microsoft also exerted tight control over all aspects of hardware and user experience, which annoyed the manufacturers with whom it initially partnered. The manufacturers felt Microsoft's mandates and licensing fees were eating into their profit margin. Android did a much better job cultivating relationships with third party manufacturers and with app developers, causing these constituencies to tell Microsoft, "See ya. Don't let the door hit ya in the ass on the way out!"
- Windows 8: The Metro UI, hidden edge screen menus, pathetically feature light native email app, and focus on touch vs. mouse input added up to one gigantic clusterfuck. The functionality of Windows 8 was particularly miserable for business users, the vast majority of whom wisely steered clear of Windows 8.
- Windows Vista: At least most folks remember Windows 8, and at least it survived on store shelves for several years, but my God, Windows Vista was arguably a bigger flop than Windows 8! From what I've read, Vista caused gigantic software & system issues. Crashes and loss of internet connectivity were commonplace.
- Galaxy Note 7 by Samsung : This phone was "on fire"...literally!!! The batteries would overheat and the phone would start smoldering. A certain model of Samsung washing machines were also known to explode when in the spin cycle around the same time period. NOT a good period for Samsung! These occurrences were very surprising, because until that point, Samsung's reputation for producing quality products was fairly strong.
- (Emerging nominee) Smart refrigerators: This is the most fucking stupid thing EVER. Who the fuck stands in front of their refrigerator all day?! Sorry, but I do not need a refrigerator that plays video, displays pictures, pops up emails & text messages, and allows me to interact with social media apps.
Would love to hear other nominees worthy of consideration that I may be overlooking!