Even tech giants like Apple, Amazon or Nintendo fail sometimes, just like many other companies. “Many companies think they are working on a new device like the iPhone, and while this may be true in some cases, in most cases it is not,” says Narik Vardanian, CEO of Prelaunch. This company has taken advantage of CES, the world’s largest electronics show, to showcase some of the most massive and unexpected technology failures of the past decades.
Tweet device only
TwitterPeek was a device that only worked with one social network: Twitter. Why have a “second phone” just for tweeting? It’s like having a car that only drives to one place, says Vardanian, who asserts that 80% of products fail because there is no market demand. This device, developed by Peek and launched in 2009, At $200 (€190), it was a flop because “big Twitter users already had phones capable of tweeting, so it didn’t really make sense to carry two devices on.” “TwitterPeek is so ridiculous that my brain hurts,” said an expert from technology portal Gizmodo.
Typical horror movie mask
Rejuvenique thought it would be a good idea to release a mask in 1999 that looked like something out of a horror movie. Mounted on the head to try to tighten facial muscles through electrical stimulation and reduce wrinkles. Although the Food and Drug Administration [la agencia del medicamento en EE UU] It was declared unsafe, and a year later it was put on the market,” they say from Prelaunch. Its end was as mysterious as the mask itself: “It mysteriously disappeared.”
Rotor controller
The Virtual Boy console, which aims to exploit 3D graphics, has become a headache for Nintendo. In addition to the fact that the 3D effect was not very successful, it caused severe dizziness in the players. From the Nintenderos portal, they noted that the device’s size didn’t help either: “What was initially planned as a portable console has become a heavy, bulky console that can’t be moved around.” Users had to lean forward while playing, which also caused neck pain. Nintendo put the brakes on the production of this console in 1996, a year after its release.
Gull wing car
The DMC-12, which was built between 1981 and 1982 by the DeLorean Motor Company, “had wings, but didn’t fly.” Here’s what they say of Prelaunch: “It was an exceptional car that failed because of poor management and the way it was marketed.” This car, reminiscent of its fantastic appearance in the movie Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985), stands out with its gull-wing doors and brushed stainless steel body. “If Back to the Future had been released a few years earlier, it could have saved the car company,” they say of Prelaunch.
Not very portable speakers
Apple introduced the iPod Hi-Fi in 2006 as a high fidelity speaker system for the iPod that redefined the concept of home stereo. But, as Brilanche explains, he abandoned it after only 18 months because it failed to meet his sales expectations. “Although it produced high-quality sound and was well received upon launch, it was not as portable as the iPod, which undermined its portability,” says the company. Added to this, there are cheaper options on the market with better sound quality, as shown by the Applesfera portal.
Inconvenient “gaming” phone
In Nokia’s head, the N-Gage was a win-win (win-win strategy): a phone and a console at the same time. This device, which was launched in 2003, was one of the first bets in the mobile device market that embraced portable gaming devices. But it ultimately failed “due to an implementation error,” according to Vardanian. The company bungled the design, creating “a product that was neither an ergonomic phone nor a ergonomic handheld console.” Also, to change the games, “people had to take the device apart.”
A console with more than 80 buttons
Google TV Remote was an attempt to merge television and the Internet. When it launched in 2012, the goal was to bring the search giant into consumers’ living rooms. But what was expected to be a great success ended in failure. It was difficult to use the Sony remote control, which had over 80 separate buttons and controls. “If you thought Google TV would make watching the internet on your TV as simple as clicking a button, you were right in half. It involves a button. Well, actually, 81,” reported The Guardian.
A mobile loaded with defaults
Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, announced in 2014 the manufacture and sale of the Fire Phone to compete with Apple and Samsung. This mobile phone, which received negative reviews from the start, stopped selling after a year. “Instead of doing exhaustive research, Amazon made assumptions about what their customers were interested in, how much they were willing to pay, and even what apps they wanted,” they say from Prelaunch. All of these assumptions “turned out to be incorrect, causing the phone to fail miserably.”
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