Tech Fail! The 10 Biggest Flops of the Last Decade

[mark kram]

Even though MS and facebook stopped supporting windows 8.1 phones, I've found they work perfectly well and don't get hacked. Smartphones are simply another appliance and I don't think anyone would want to buy a refrigerator every 2 or 3 years. They need to last and be supported like other appliances are.

End of rant

 

[mark kram]

I miss Windows Phone. It ran great on weak hardware, had a lot of stuff built in that Android/iOS dont (mobile IE eliminated the need for email and youtube apps,
OS had a built in QR reader, ece) and it could get updates straight from MS,
along with being able to uninstall carrier apps.

MS could have had a gem if it didnt constantly drop the ball on hardware support/updates. Onedrive integration, continuum, and Domain Management were all talked about for WP, and would have made it a stand out player in the business and prosumer world.

AMD bulldozer CPUs?

I'd go bigger, and say AMD's utter mismanagement from 2006 to about 2016. A full decade of clowns and morons nearly tanked that entire company. The first phenoms, the delay in phenom IIs, the bulldozer generation, the lackluster 6000s, the ReBrandeon years of the 200 and 300 series, wasting hundreds of millions on seamicro, ece.

Windows phones work perfectly well without updates as long as you don't need to check facebook every 5 minutes. We have two 8.1 phones and one win 10 phone that haven't died yet.

 

[operchafu]

Not sure if I would call home 3D printers a fail yet - I wonder if their time just has not come.

Our local Aldi store was offering one for au$299 or 399 a couple of weeks ago.

Too bad I didn't have the cash :/

 

[lazer]

hmmmmm,
M$ was only mentioned two out of ten times....
Well, I guess it is still better then everyone else....

 

[mito88]

Google+ is not a failure.....

 

[fktech]

Windows 10

 

[Phr3d]

I believe you meant to say, rather than parsing to two+ items (Vista,win8.0 - .1 - .2 aka 10, phone):
Ballmer.. (Skulley's red-headed stepchild)
The Ballmer-ectomy may Never be completed in Redmond.

 

[SingularitE]

Here are my obvious candidates to add:

Intel Larrabee dGPU - it cost 5+ billion USD to develop and after the first public demo it was cancelled. Luckily it was a HTPC market for it to make a profit but Intel failed at the objective of making a consumer dGPU, the 2nd time I must add. Maybe 3rd time's the charm with Raja Koduri.

AMD Bulldozer - the hype was strong with this one. I remember reading the comics released by AMD about this one featuring the 8 FX and Ruby against some evil organization ... Duh, what a hopeless war that was for the last 7even years!!!

Intel Atom mobile SoCs for Phones and Tablets - after several generations of development and budget in red they cancelled them 18 months ago.
And a little extra history: The different view about the strategy for mobile SoCs is what caused all the senior management exodus at AMD started in 2012.

Just my 2 bucks.

 

[commanderasus]

https://youtu.be/4sH6lopuzdc

 

[Abraka]

You forgot the Intel Management Engine which exposed billions of devices to attacks from government agencies to hacker groups. And it's not just some attack, it's an attack when one can take over someone's entire computer and do whatever they want. Intel should bankrupt for a security hole like that. ME is definitely the worst things that has happened in the IT industry.

 

[rollinshultz]

I consider 3D printers now, as I did color laser printers 20 years ago. It took a long time for prices to drop and make color laser printers affordable enough to become popular. Likewise 3D printers are steadily dropping, but none of the major corporations has adopted them for their branding.
Savvy consumers readily purchase them from Chinese suppliers, but savvy is not main stream, so the snowball of popularity hasn't started down the steeper slope to gain momentum. While I am not trying to start a new conspiracy theory, I do wonder why none of the major corporations is pushing them.
China sells more of these than anyone, but in the end, once they become prevalent, China's bottom line will be the most affected as people realize they can make all their own cheap knock-off junk right at home.

I predict in 20 years multimedia printers will make possible printing things like electronics items including the enclosure of choice in one shot from a single file. Imagine also printing 3D circuits with embedded 3D pathways instead of the flat 2D circuit boards of present technology.