2012 saw some big fat failures from tech companies, which proved consumers can even be a fickle bunch of people and the best minds can come up with an occasional loser. It does not seem to be hard at all to come up with a list of tech failures. So let’s track all the tech flops that took place from the second half of 2012 as listed out by Yahoo.
10 BlackBerry
Also called as CrackBerrys, they were seen everywhere and people could not put them off their minds. 2012’s one biggest flop is the BlackBerry’s announcement of new OS BB10. It was never released that year as it had promised. This was supposed to be RIMs comeback for the BlackBerry brand and it sounded exciting enough for fans who waited for it. But now that it has been released, the BlackBerry faithful are getting their hopes back again. The rest have totally lost interest.
9 Nokia Lumia 900
Nokia and Microsoft launched their first Major phone together in the U.S. in the beginning of 2012. This may sound newsy because almost no one bought the Lumia 900. But now Microsoft has a smaller share of the Smartphone market and Nokia is trying hard to win eyes with its new comeback, Lumia 920.
This is sad news because the Finnish Company did a great deal and Lumia 900 was the best Windows Phone available when it was launched. The unibody design was smart looking and it came with a beautiful 4.3 inch screen and 8 megapixel camera. But no one really cared.
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8 3D Televisions
The 3D HDTV was not introduced in 2012, which was the year for it to become irrelevant. It was a hot product when seen at the Consumer Electronic Show in 2010. The reason was to give a new ‘Avatar’ experience in your living room. It was sure that most of us wanted it.
Despite a 3% rate of adoption in American homes, the industry has not abandoned the 3D HDTVs yet. It is still seen on the shelves of most major retailers. The glasses can be bulky, inducing headache. Picture quality in these televisions varies greatly and their initial prices were too high for most.
All we need is to expect less 3D content coming out while these TVs- which are completely capable of excellent 2D performance decrease in profile and price.
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7 Sean Parker’s Airtime
Sean Parker’s Airtime was an insanely hyped startup, which turned out to be a whole lot of nothing. Airtime was this founder’s response to ‘Chatroulette’, a place to meet new people through webcam, text chat and mic. It was supposed to revolutionize communication through Facebook.
This did not happen because Airtime suffered from stagnant user base despite its $33 million in funding also with a somewhat infamous June opening press conference with stars such as Jim Carrey and Alicia Keys and the blessing of cool comics Jimmy Fallon and Julia Louis Dreyfus. Parker later added that the site was getting only 10,000 active users per day. However, he maintained that the product would transform how we communicate.
6 Apple Maps
Steve Jobs might have built the mighty Apple which may be a juggernaut. But the mighty company can also make mistake. Apple Maps was proved to be a complete disaster that CEO Tim Cook had to apologize for. He said that Apple strived to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers and with the launch of the new Maps, they fell short on doing this commitment. He also added that they were extremely sorry for the frustration this had caused to the customers and were doing everything to make Maps better.
With Google taking years to assemble and fine tune its product, Apple could not make it anyway with its cleverness and hubris. Fancy new features such as 3D imagery and spoken turn-by—turn couldn’t save this product riddled with errors.
5 Play Station Vita
Vita came out with a bunch of cool things. It had amazing graphics, excellent design and build quality. It promised a strong online community and cross play with the PS3. It was also well received at the launch, but is yet to get the killer app it needs to become – a ‘must have’ platform. Vita could be titled as ‘Call of Duty’, Black Ops’ or even ‘Declassified’ instead, it was an absolute mess.
Not even one or two blockbuster games could change this momentum as none was them were seen on the immediate horizon. As of now PlayStation Vita has become a chilling answer of the viability of handheld gaming consoles in a world filled with game-effective machines - Smartphones.
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4 Google Nexus Q
Google’s Nexus Q was a mess. The company decided to postpone the launch of this high profile hardware product indefinitely just days before it was expected to ship the first units. The hardware was supposed to be an innovative entertainment in-house device but was pulled off before it was sold to its consumers.
Besides this, there was a noticeable price tag of $299 (approx. 15,000) that Google attached on the device. The speakers were for $399(approx. 21, 000) and a pair of cables which was insanely priced at $49 (approx. 2110) added to the increasing price tag.
As impressive as the hardware specs were, it was a little more than an Apple TV aimed at Android users. The Apple TV sold for a fraction of what Google was asking of Nexus Q. It also seemed overpriced as the Nexus 7 which started at $199 (approx. 10,000) was also announced alongside. Making a big deal out of the design and manufacture did not even justify the considerable price tag.
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3 Oprah’s love for Microsoft
Oprah gave Microsoft Surface some props on Twitter and what seemed awkward as she used her Apple iPad to tweet it off.
The tweet said that she loved the Surface and had brought 12 of them as Christmas gifts. The controversial tweet, noticed by Zagg and The Next Web as early as possible, received more than 400 ‘retweets’ and more than 170 ‘favorites’. She praised the Surface Microsoft’s tablet to be like a Mercedes-Benz to her.
Twitter revealed this through their metadata which usually notes which devices or apps users are using when they tweet.
Though Apple iPad was her favorite in 2010, her praises for technology seem to change time and again as with this controversial tweet.
Tim Cook’s first major hire as CEO was a big flop. John Brownett who came from Dixons to Apple, tried to put his own stamp on one of the most successful retail shops in the world by cutting back employee hours to make the stores more profitable. That didn’t go so well and in a few months Browett was gone.
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1 Facebook’s Reach Generator
On March 1st, Facebook held a fancy event in New York to promote its new product called Reach Generator. This was supposed to increase the frequency with which brands would hit users’ news feeds. After six months, the product seemed to be complicated for which Facebook totally forgot about it.
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