There are two reliable ways to write your name in history: with a great success of your product, or contrary, with their failure. Technics is the field which in last decades records a great rise. We are witnesses of numerous discoveries and inventions without of which we cannot imagine today’s life. However, all technical inventions and innovations did not have the same level of success.
Whether we want to admit it or not, you learn from your mistakes, so it is possible that some of these failures of technical inventions later served as basis for some future projects. What remained most vividly in our memories, and relates to failures from the field of technics, like Blackberry Playbook and HP Touch-Pad or Microsoft’s Kin “smart” phone that failed after only 48 days, lead us to dig deeper in history and create a list of 10 most unsuccessful technical achievements, starting with Honda’s robot “Asimo” who fell to the ground during his promotion.
10ASIMO (2006)
To showcase their robot humanoid „Asimo“, Honda had it walk up a flight of stairs. After three steps he froze and crashed to the ground.
09MICROSOFT ZUNE (2008)
Microsoft Zune released five years after the iPod, and cams too late break Apple’s hold on the mp3 player market. Peaking at 3% of market share, production ceased in 2011.
08EXPLODING BATTERIES (2006)
Dell recalled 4 million laptops due to exploding batteries. Incident included a laptop catching fore during a business conference in “Japan”.
07APPLE NEWTON (1993)
The Apple Newton’s key feature, handwriting recognition, mistranslated words. Costing 100 million dollar to develop, it was axed five years after its launch.
06IBM PC jr (1984)
IBM PS had an unusual 62-key keyboard that made typing difficult and the basic model cost a prohibitive 669 dollar. IBM had to replace 60.000 keyboards - PC jr was axed in 1985.
05POWER GLOVE (1989)
To promote the new controller NINTENDO produced the film “The wizard” in which it featured heavily. Unresponsive and with only two games specifically made for it, it flopped.
04NOKIA N/GAGE (2003)
Gaming cellphone released for a costly 299 dollar, with buttons annoyingly designed for dialing rather than gamming. Gameboy advance SP outsold it 100 to 1.
03SHARP’S RD3D NOTEBOOK (2004)
The laptop could display 3D images without the glasses. Viewers complained that the effect caused headaches and was only noticeable within a very narrow angle.
02MICROSOFT BOB (1995)
To help novice users, Microsoft represented the desktop as a house, with assorted characters as guides. Seen to be cute and confusing, it was discontinued in 1998.
01 SINCLAIR C5 (1985)
The electric tricycle was hailed as the future of transport when launched. With a top speed of 24 km/h, open to the weather and with no gears it sold 17.000 units, with production ceasing eight months later.
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