10 Biggest Tech 'Fails' of 2014

BANGALORE: In the big volume of technology failures, there are a few examples that standout as so huge. You may wonder what the companies were thinking while making and launching these products. They seem to have just been a case of bad timing, bad marketing, bad luck, not living up to the hype, and many more.

Sometimes there's no accounting for the failure of a product, even if the product is better than its competitors. Having a strong market research and a huge advertising campaign, it can still fail which is unpredictable. Here is a list of products which failed to survive in the market and a few slowly perishing, as compiled by The Richest

#1. 3D Television

3D television is television that conveys depth perception to the viewer by employing techniques such as stereoscopic display, multi-view display, 2D-plus-depth, or any other form of 3D display.  The prices of these televisions are quite high, anywhere from $1,500 to nearly $40,000. Also, many of the televisions require glasses to see 3D films which cause discomfort. Some viewers have complained of headaches, seizures, and eyestrain. After years of promotion and product releases from TV manufacturers, the product has been dropped.

#2.Smart Watches

Smart watches are computerized wristwatches with functionality that is enhanced beyond timekeeping and is often comparable to a personal digital assistant device. While early models can perform basic tasks, such as calculations, translations, and game-playing, modern smart watches can be effective wearable computers. Apple, Google, Samsung are now working on to bring these devices to market. Smart watches may fail but however, only time can predict.

#3.Windows Phone

Windows Phone is a Smartphone, its operating system developed by Microsoft. It is the successor to Windows Mobile, although it is incompatible with the earlier platform. Windows Phone is failing, because of various reasons. Sales have gone down with 7.4 million Windows phones shipped in the second quarter of this year. Windows Phone has less apps and consumers prefer iPhones and Androids over it.

#4.Clippy

Clippit, better known as Clippy, is the default animated character in the English Windows version of Microsoft Office Assistant. It pops up when the user needs assistance with using Office wizards, searching, or advising users on using Office features more effectively. It presents tips and keyboard shortcuts. For example, typing an address followed by "Dear" would cause Clippit to pop up and say, "It looks like you're writing a letter. Would you like help?

While Clippy was intended to be helpful, it was widely regarded as a failure by many users and drew criticism from customers and even Microsoft employees.  Microsoft finally killed off Clippy in 2007.

#5.HD DVD

HD DVD was one of the two formats for high definition DVDs. The other format was Blue Ray. When HD DVD was first launched, it had a sales lead over Blue Ray. Families with children wanted access to Disney movies, but HD-DVD didn't have it. Warner Brothers basically killed the HD DVD when they decided they would be releasing all of their films and television programs exclusively on Blue Ray. The company even offered to replace HD DVD titles with Blue Ray for a small shipping and handling fee.

#6.Garmin Nuvifone

The Garmin Nuvifone is a line of Internet-enabled mobile phone and personal navigation devices, manufactured by a partnership between Garmin and Asus. It makes use of a touchscreen with virtual keyboards and buttons. Garmin debuted a smartphone that came with a car dock. The phone has their navigation system built-in, as well as allows hands-free calling. It also has a great geo-tagging option for the camera, and a built-in social network called Ciao! Apple released their navigation apps and made a good progress in the market whereas Garmin couldn’t succeed.

#7.Helio

Helio was a mobile virtual network operator using Sprint's network that offered wireless voice, messaging and data products and services to customers. Helio was also a smartphone brand which had several models. They ran TV commercials with the slogan, "Don't Call Us a Phone Company; Don't Call it a Phone." Helio also began advertising on billboards, in the print media and on MySpace to promote the product. Helio resulted in millions of dollars of losses per month and didn’t do well in the market.

#8.Apple Newton

Manufactured by Sharp, the Apple Newton MessagePad is one of the first-ever Personal Digital Assistants, a term coined by Apple's then-CEO, John Sculley.  Newton is best described as a handheld communications assistant with a touch-screen and pen-stylus that allows the user to gather, manage, and share information. It has a calendar, a to-do list, calculator, currency converter, a time-zones map and an address book. Major drawback is that it has low battery life and a blurry screen. However, Newton isn’t a total failure.

#9.BetaMax

During the 1970s, Sony developed a machine designed to deliver home video-taping equipment. Betamax tapes could be played only 60 minutes which isn’t really long enough for a movie and since it was a higher quality product, it came with a high price tag. All this led to its failure. Also, Sony don’t let other manufacturers make their players.

#10.Mini Disc

The MiniDisc is an obsolete magneto-optical disc. Though its format has the running time and quality of a CD, it is much smaller and more portable than a regular cassette. You could also re-record a disc without losing any audio quality. However, it was never quite worth the expense and soon it was abruptly destroyed by the arrival of mp3.