40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead
Remember the Segway craze of the early 2000s? Mall cops were zooming down walkways with them, and guided Segway tours became a hit in popular tourist destinations. But then, seemingly overnight, they disappeared. And now they’re nowhere to be found, as electric scooters have quickly become the preferred mode of transit for pedestrians who don’t feel like walking.
There’s a new “next big thing” every year, but unfortunately, they don’t all live up to their own expectations. Redditors have recently been discussing “next big things” that massively flopped, so below, you can look back on products and companies that, in hindsight, probably received too much hype. Enjoy scrolling through, and be sure to upvote the things you had completely forgotten about!
This post may include affiliate links.
Not entirely relevant, but I liked the trend where everybody wanted the smallest cell phone possible. For 20 years cell phones got smaller and smaller. Often being the main selling point of the phone.
Then all of sudden you could watch videos on your phone, and almost overnight the trend reversed to “larger is better”.
The “[pandemic] baby boom” People thought that during lockdowns we’d see a bunch of pregnancies because couples would essentially have nothing else to do. Instead we saw people isolate more even after the lockdowns ended and fewer people are dating at all now let alone having kids. When inflation started to increase you also saw more people choose to delay having kids due to increased costs and some residual effects of shortages (like the baby formula shortage we had in the US last year)
Those chips that were “fat free”, except they made you have violent diarrhea and a**l leakage because of the Olestra used in them.
An*l leakage and explosive diarrhea is a sure fire weight loss regimen.
Internet of Things.
I'm an engineer, and while I was in college people in my field have been banging that drum.
Turns out we just need a good enough refrigerator, not an internet connected one.
When the Windows Phone was unveiled, Microsoft held a genuine funeral procession for the iPhone.
My Windows phone was the best phone I've had. Intuitive, smart, and lasted longer than any other smartphone. The only reason I changed it was that people stopped making apps for it leaving no choice but to replace with an iPhone or android.
Microsoft didn't understand the potential of apps on mobiles, so it died a death, even though it was a really good phone.
Well! It seems that people who had this phone, disagreed with this post.
No, I think we can all agree these were a flop. They were good though.
Load More Replies...
I loved my windows phone. Android since, but hate how they've taken over my brain chemistry. I'd love to stop having one or go back to a Nokia basic but so many aspects of life now are almost impossible without one.
People forget Microsoft back in the 90s with HP co-invented the smartphone, a touchscreen with internet, etc. However it was way too soon and tech wasnt goo enough yet. Then they came back into the game late with a average product. In 1991 Microsoft had the first tablet, too early for the tech. Then they had a new one in the 2000s with a release date 9 months before the iPad and Steve Balmer killed the project after pre-orders saying it would flop (it was also much more advanced and cheaper than the iPad), then much later they tried to re-enter with the Surface, but it never took off but still exists. Microsoft had multiple times invented a new tech too soon, dropped working it, and then jumping back in late.
Windows phones were actually awesome. They just didn't have any apps because no one wanted to develop for another, unproven platform. They'd have done a lot better if they'd come before Android I reckon.
The Lumia 1020. Best camera I ever had.
Load More Replies...
I had the 520, 530, 730 and I loved every one of them, albeit they had issues (my 530 was unusable during charge, the OS went completely chaotic 😂) I still have a black 830, looks like new, is basically new, it went obsolete before I even got to use it (my brother bought it on a whim), I keep it in a drawer and turn it on from time to time, just to "get a taste" from that unforgetable windows OS
Loved my Windows phone, popping Xbox achievements on the go was awesome
I sold this phone among other smartphones. One of the real killers was the complete lack of support from app developers. People would buy it and 2 years later get an iPhone or Android bc they were tired of being ignored.
Glad l got over this phone 📱 it took a while ,but converted, l went to a Google phone and didn't like that one because when you upload pictures to your laptop it did other pictures l didn't want uploaded ,like dating photos , Now have a Samsung S23, Top of the Range 🤩 But was hooked for so many years on the Window phone 😜 and they would never Join the other companies to make competitive
I've only had one windows phone. hated it. to the extent that, as I was unable to get out of my contract, I was willing to take on another phone contract for another phone until it expired. it was that bad.
It wasn't an iPhone and it wasn't Android. There just wasn't a need for a third player to keep the market honest.
I had 6 HTC windows phones in the space of a year. They kept overheating and burned out! Was able to get replacements under warranty but never figured why they just one day decided to get hot, shut down and never start back up! Was great when it worked...
I had a Windows phone on Nokia hardware and it really was the closest thing to an iPhone. It had all the "big" apps like Facebook but the problem was no secondary apps like my bank etc. so it's function was limited. I ended up turning to the dark side and got an iPhone but that Nokia-Windows combo was really good.
That was my first smart phone. While I loved finally having a smart phone I didn’t care much for the usability of it. I eventually switched to android
The only real problem with Windows phones was the same one that Bill Gates/Microsoft made with the Internet. It was way too late to the game. In the case of the Internet Microsoft was able to leverage their dominance in Windows/Desktop to edge back into this market and recover. But for the phones, by the time they got into it, they couldn't pay enough developers to make apps for it. It just wasn't where the money was.
I wanted one, but they were gone before I was ready to switch. Then again I also wanted a Blackberry.
I also highly resented Microsoft making my desktop look/behave like their awful phone. "I want a giant desktop screen that looks and behaves like my phone", said nobody ever.
The buyers of windows phones generally said positive things. Both of them. Its like HP and Microsoft developed smart PDAs...and windows CE operating system. PDAs became phones and contacts and calendars became apps. PDAs died in a moment
My sister had one and it took awesome pictures. Her new Android does too. My iPhone pictures...meh.
I loved my Windows phone. It had a feature that apple still won't add. When you got a text and were wearing an earpiece, you'd hear "You have a new message from *****, read it or ignore?" If you said read it, then you'd hear "new message from *****" then their message. Afterwards you'd hear "reply, call back or I'm done." All totally hands free. And you could answer the phone without touching anything. With apples earbuds you have to tap twice to answer a call. That's why I won't use their earbuds.
OMG, I'd forgotten about that....and I worked at MSFT when it happened! I don't remember anything "official", but afterward employees kept their iPhones out of view because it wasn't a good look for MSFT staff to be on the competitor's (far more successful) hardware. You'd see folks outside on breaks stealthily checking their iPhones behind trees and in cars....
Had a windows phone and there was nothing you could do with it but text and talk. Garbage.
Blockchain. I couldn’t stop hearing about it in grad school. I got pushed into studying data analytics and had to do a course on it. In the end I wrote my paper on the usefulness of it and basically said “it’s not without its uses, but there doesn’t seem to be a pressing need for it.” I read later a much better assessment of “a solution looking for a problem” and that basically nailed it.
Blockchain is an excellent choice for many things but its main commercial use (cryptocurrency) isn't one of them. Its wasting resources to create an artificial scarcity that has no real value. The strength or weakness of a currency is user belief. Almost the entire world looked at it and decided my one dollar or one yen bill works just fine and it won't go away if I forget a password.
I’m still very distraught we never got the modular phone revolution I was promised back in the early 2010s. Now it’s wildly exciting to have a replaceable battery. My heart weeps
The DCEU. I mean, they started a franchise finally showing Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman together on the big screen, and yet they somehow managed to botch it so spectacularly, so early on.
I've watched all those movies and couldn't tell you what happened in any of them except the first Wonder Woman movie.
Amazon’s shopping buttons. They pushed really hard for those and I never saw the point.
The Metaverse.
Curved TV's.
Is that trend "dead"? Just thought it's not cheap enough yet to be massively expanded.. saw several high end curved TV's on display in my local electronics store, when I visited to get my new, cheap QLED tv.
Motion controls in video games. They have not disappeared completely but they are nowhere as popular as they were back in the late 2000s.
Minidisc
Oh yes, I went with that.... just a better way to mixtape than the old tape format. But noone else jumped on board it seemed:)
Kinect was a full body motion control thing for the Xbox 360. It was supposed to change the gaming industry. It had maybe a dozen games made for it, most of which barely worked. And it silently went away after about 2 or 3 years.
How is that tesla cybertruck, it was announced years ago but not available yet, or is it?
The litany of film adaptations of young adult novels that happened in the wake of Hunger Games' success. Aside from Divergent, which eventually ran out of gas, and Maze Runner all of them flopped and didn't get sequels.
Fyre festival
The future when you were young😂
"When I was young I was poor. But after decades of hard work, I'm no longer young."
Clear Pepsi. If I remember correctly they even used a Van Halen song for the commercials
They just came out with clear ketchup did they learn nothing from the crazy colors of the 90s
How has NOBODY posted about the Firephone???
Whole teams of people were fired after that debacle.
Wii U was unfortunate. The Switch is just a very refined Wii U.
One of the funniest I remember was solar roads. Solar panels that you drive on. Without damaging them, somehow. With your operating room tires.
HD DVD
Still remember half the movies being blue and the others red.
And they say DVD and Blu-ray are becoming popular again because they're more permanent than the digital downloads you bought.
Dippin Dots has been the ice cream of the future for a while now. You'd think that future would have come to pass by now.
Emu meat!
For a while there in the late 80s & early 90s it was a thing that doctors & lawyers who wanted the ranch lifestyle would invest in. There was enough awareness of it that emus getting killed by the monster was even played for a gag in *8 Legged Freaks* & one of the *Tremors* movies.
No wonder they got into wars. They didn't want to be dinner.
Disney's Atlantis. They had a whole park planned around it. Unfortunately they released it in a year saturated by insanely good movies.
Zune
Zune was just as functional, easy to upload to, use and manage as an iPod, it was just in the right place at the wrong time. It just couldn't compete with the product that got there first.
Gonna tentatively suggest this, Apple's Vision Pro headset thing.
A VR headset with a separate battery that you have to carry, creepy eye vision screen on the front, and all for only $3500+. How could it fail?
Also, now that I think of it. Apple's Ping social networking thing.
Fusion power is always 10 years away
No, it didn't flop: https://fusionforenergy.europa.eu/news/jt-60sa-is-officially-the-most-powerful-tokamak/
Threads
My threads hold my clothing together. Believe me when I say this is a very good thing for the world.
KONY 2012
i guess the fact that i dont know half of these things means its true :-D
Me too! -but as a wise man once sang; ♫ "Too much monkey business for me to be involved in"♫
Load More Replies... At one time there was the laser disc. A bigger version of cd and super expensive
I remember my elementary school's gifted program was given a laser disk player. The school was so proud of that thing. We had one laser disk for it... a tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. Or maybe it was the Smithsonian? It's been a while. Late 80s.
Load More Replies...
People are equating 'trends' with 'life-changing' by saying "these things are still around". This article isn't about whether a trend fell out of favor, it's whether something touted as 'life-changing' ended up being so. It's irrelevant if they're still around, what matters is that they didn't affect society in the way they were sold they would. Motion control was supposed to change gaming. It didn't. The fact that VR and some games still use it doesn't change the fact that it didn't change the gaming industry.
Remember ruby chocolate? It was everywhere for a while then it kind of vanished overnight.
Humans. We have had great potential for years but individually most of us squander our evolutionary advantage, as for a whole idk if we'll ever be truly civil, humanity seems to be regressing instead of progressing
Capacitance Electronic Disc - Right before VCRs were a household staple, and before laser disks, was the CED. I haven’t met a person yet that remembers them, but our local video store rented the disks and the machines for awhile in the 80’s. I still have a copy of Star Wars on CED as a conversion piece.
Real life earnings in Video Games. Remember when Diablo 3 came out and it was super hyped that it has an auction house where you can pay in real money to other players? And people might make money out of it? People were saying it will change the entire industry. Spoiler alert: It didn't and even that game cut it out eventually.
why would they? am stereo radio exists and people who want to listen to it can. The problem with terrestrial radio in general is that its not profitable anymore.
Load More Replies...
i guess the fact that i dont know half of these things means its true :-D
Me too! -but as a wise man once sang; ♫ "Too much monkey business for me to be involved in"♫
Load More Replies... At one time there was the laser disc. A bigger version of cd and super expensive
I remember my elementary school's gifted program was given a laser disk player. The school was so proud of that thing. We had one laser disk for it... a tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. Or maybe it was the Smithsonian? It's been a while. Late 80s.
Load More Replies... People are equating 'trends' with 'life-changing' by saying "these things are still around". This article isn't about whether a trend fell out of favor, it's whether something touted as 'life-changing' ended up being so. It's irrelevant if they're still around, what matters is that they didn't affect society in the way they were sold they would. Motion control was supposed to change gaming. It didn't. The fact that VR and some games still use it doesn't change the fact that it didn't change the gaming industry.
Remember ruby chocolate? It was everywhere for a while then it kind of vanished overnight.
Humans. We have had great potential for years but individually most of us squander our evolutionary advantage, as for a whole idk if we'll ever be truly civil, humanity seems to be regressing instead of progressing
Capacitance Electronic Disc - Right before VCRs were a household staple, and before laser disks, was the CED. I haven’t met a person yet that remembers them, but our local video store rented the disks and the machines for awhile in the 80’s. I still have a copy of Star Wars on CED as a conversion piece.
Real life earnings in Video Games. Remember when Diablo 3 came out and it was super hyped that it has an auction house where you can pay in real money to other players? And people might make money out of it? People were saying it will change the entire industry. Spoiler alert: It didn't and even that game cut it out eventually.
why would they? am stereo radio exists and people who want to listen to it can. The problem with terrestrial radio in general is that its not profitable anymore.
Load More Replies...