The 11 Biggest Emerging Technology Blunders

The 11 Biggest Emerging Technology Blunders

Whether we like to admit it or not, we love technology. The annual Consumer Electronics Show is always a hit, there is always a long line whenever a new Apple or Samsung gadget is released and most people just cannot wait until the newest in tech go on sale. But just like many things in life, much of technology is a hit or miss kind of thing. And as you will see in the list below, even the best brands and tech giants have come out with emerging technology that failed.

1. Google’s Nexus Q

Google is one of those companies that seem to do no wrong when it comes to technology. They developed an amazing search engine, come up with great software and have pretty good smartphone tools too. In 2012, Google released a $300 digital media player called Nexus Q at the Google I/O conference. Nexus Q received bad feedback mainly because of disparity between price and function. Google pulled the device from stores and reduced its price very low to anyone who pre-ordered.

2. Apple Lisa

In 1983, Apple released Lisa—the first commercial computer with a graphical user interface (GUI). Even with the seemingly controversial tagline such as “Apple gets graphic with Lisa”, the computer flopped. It was slow, expensive, and overly designed. Despite its features of protected memory, pre-emptive multitasking, and advanced OS, Lisa was considered to be less useful than the Mac of that time.

3. Xerox Alto

In 1973, Xerox PARC developed the first personal computer and called it Alto. It had a graphical user interface, mouse, and NLS (oN-Line System). It was a great innovation and a real breakthrough at that time, so it was kind of a great thing. It only became a blunder because instead of licensing it, Xerox had other developers like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates look at it. Hence, they were able to take away ideas for later development and Xerox did not get any share of the later PC releases.

4. Windows Vista

It is considered to be one of the few Windows failures in history unless. Windows Vista was a terrible operating system that was massively criticized for its slowness and compatibility issues. The general public did not want to abandon Windows XP for it and it became a big relief when Windows 7 finally took over.

5. Microsoft Kin

Microsoft Kin was a mobile phone that had the hip and cool appeal and the promise of social media functioning. What made it very short-lived though is that the pricing was wrong considering that the target market was teens and young adults. Kin one and two did so poorly in sales that it was pulled from Verizon after just two months of release in 2010. It was soon scrapped and discontinued.

6. Palm Foleo

Linux made an attempt to have a line of sub notebook computers in 2007 by the name of Palm Foleo. It was criticized for not being small enough to fit the pocket but not having full laptop features either. It was mocked and given the name “Palm Fooleo” and was pulled out three months after its release.

7. Netflix’s Qwikster

Netflix wanted to channel their DVD-by-mail service into an entirely different company in 2011. Renaming the service was supposed to help streamline the process and make it more convenient for the public. Instead, Qwikster created confusion and became a really bad decision they had to take back quickly.

8. Blackberry PlayBook

Blackberry attempted to be part of the tablet craze in 2011. It was able to sell about 2.5 million units by June of 2013 so it was not really that big of a bust. However, the Blackberry PlayBook was never considered to be anywhere close to the iPad or Android tablets so it was discontinued in 2014.

9. Apple Maps

Google has been ruling the tech when it comes to maps for the longest time and Apple’s attempt to provide the map service became futile. It became a big criticism of the Apple users and a flop. It shows signs of improvement with Apples backing but still is far behind the options available.

10. iCloud hack

Having nude celebrity photos distributed all over the internet is big proof that there was something wrong with iCloud’s security features.

11. Various social networking services

Well this one is really cheating but there are several attempts at social networking that all turned out to be a dud.

• Google Buzz – highly criticized for being intrusive and lacking of innovative twist.
• New MySpace – despite celebrity endorsements and being bought by Justin Timberlake, MySpace cannot go back to being relevant as it once was before Facebook.
• Airtime – the chatroulette clone never got good reception.
• Facebook email – we love Facebook but using it to email is just way beyond what others would find useful.

 

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