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35 Times Something Failed Miserably Despite Being Declared As ‘The Next Big Thing’
Interview With Expert
Our world is constantly evolving, and there always seems to be some “next big thing” that’s supposed to have a major impact on our lives. But while some of these promises come true, many more are heavily underdelivered.
There have been plenty of occasions when something seemingly so impressive turned out to be nothing more than an absolute flop. As one Reddit user found out, these oversold disappointments are not so easily forgotten because when they asked other netizens to point them out, the answers came pouring through. Scroll down to see some of the best ones!
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
NFTs
MaximumKarmaSaint 1 year ago
But they were really hyped, they should be at the top for managing to fail before they even started.
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Luke Branwen 1 year ago
The only good thing about it was that it made a bunch of obnoxious, smug and stupid people lose tons of money.
PSimms 1 year ago
A friend was very excited about getting a chess board with an NFT. It was a normal wooden chess board that came " with an NFT." I asked him how the NFT was made part of the board, and he starts explaining to me that an NFT is an unbreakable digital code. I told him that I know what an NFT is, that's why I'm asking how it is attached/inserted/whatever to a physical piece of wood. It can't be input, so is it just written on the board, maybe a little plaque attached? It seems to me that anyway an nft could be attached to a physical chessboard would allow the nft to be easily removed and just put on some other board. My friend started to get annoyed so I dropped it and 2 years later I have never seen any chess board.
Tamra 1 year ago
He's made quite a bit of money selling those ridiculous NFTs. Says a lot about the intellect of his supporters. 🤣
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liam newton-harding 1 year ago
Okay, how do I “own” this image that is freely available across the internet?…***magic!***…Okay, how do I stop others using this freely available image, or get them to pay me royalties for using it?…***magic!!!***
RELATED:
#2
Olestra. If you were old enough in the 90s, you remember everyone s******g their pants over it.
TheGoodBoi 1 year ago
"Olestra can cause diarrhea and loose stools, abdominal cramps, flatulence, and other adverse effects. Those symptoms are sometimes severe."...Oof
Donald 1 year ago
The symptoms included a**l leakage, a fate far worse then diarrhea.
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Kathleen McGann 1 year ago
It just never occurs to people that for a food to have no calories, it has to be indigestible. Same with sucralose.
Oddball 1 year ago
Sometime soon we'll see an Attorney on TV asking of we ever took it because we could receive "substantial compensation" so just call 1-800-shyster......
Pandroid Rebellion 1 year ago
It didn't make me s**t myself but I had acid reflux so bad I could not lie down or sleep for 3 days. My roommate thought I was on something. IT WAS THE CHIPS sounded like a lie.
Der Kommissar 1 year ago
Fortunately, we still have products that are sweetened by maltitol and xylitol such as sugar free gummies. I read reviews of these just for a laugh.
Kraneia The Dancing Dryad 1 year ago
You know there's an issue when it recommends *on the package* to wear brown pants!!
Janet Sherman Lynam 1 year ago
Didn't bother me at all and I really miss those low or non fat Lays potato chips!!
#3
Modular phones. I can remember reading about how being able to choose and change the different modules based on your phone needs (better camera, better speakers, etc.) was gonna kill the iPhone. Kind of a shame really, they sounded pretty cool.
Jeremy James 1 year ago
But then, if one component failed, you could just easily replace it instead of throwing the whole phone in the trash and buying a new one. Obviously, we can't have that! /s
SleepSycho 1 year ago
Yes, far more profitable to maximize exploitation of poor mineral-rich nations
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Anxious Aardvark 1 year ago
Fairphone is a modular self-repair/upgrade phone. Still available. It's not perfect, but I know someone who loves theirs.
Floral Pattern 1 year ago
I've got a Fairphone 5 now, and very happy indeed! So there's two :-)
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Coffee loving panda 1 year ago
Ever heard of fair phone they are a dutch company who produce modular phones and are actually quit succesful
Šimon Špaček 1 year ago
Isn't that Fairphone? Or was it a side project for Framework computers?
2bwhctmvgn 1 year ago
This would just be a feature of a particular phone. Why would LG need to buy in to the concept for OnePlus to make a phone where you could swap out the camera?
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Probably the top reason for big things flopping is overpromising, followed by underdelivering. A good deal of people keep doing that over and over, and people keep falling for that time and time again.
With this forming a certain pattern, we became curious to understand why this keeps happening. With this in mind, Bored Panda reached out to Nick Hatter, a therapeutic life coach, who had some interesting takes on the subject.
#4
Google+. Everyone thought it's gonna be the facebook killer, now it's just a history.
Luke Branwen 1 year ago
I was on G+ for some time and it was actually a fun site in a sense. Something like Tumblr lite. Met a lot of good people there.
Robert A Reider Jr 1 year ago
I met some amazing business contacts. It was a great place. No politics, just interesting people..
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CG 1 year ago
Most of the things Google touches have a limited shelf life, with the exception of YouTube's acquisition.
Lara Verne 1 year ago
Wrong timing. G+ was fun, but it appeared when facebook was still no. 1 and everyone loved it.
Guess Undheit 1 year ago
The ash soles at google ruined it themselves. Forcing everyone to use it in order to leave youtube comments (and then killing off people's accounts for things they write) doesn't exactly make people willing to sign up. [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTq8TrA3hb4 ]
#5
3D TVs
Gg 1 year ago
Even worse just remembered that my TV is a 3D TV and I have no idea how to use that feature haha
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Warrior Mama 1 year ago
I wish there was a good option for home theaters to do 3D or even 4DX movies! I love all the special effects but hate other moviegoers talking through/constantly walking around during every single movie I see in theaters
Graham Chapman (He/He) 1 year ago
Bought one about 12 years ago, It came with 6 pairs of glasses, and for a while it was great, but there just wasn't enough 3D films going round at the time..
liam newton-harding 1 year ago
They keep trying…pretty much every 25 years…to make 3D a thing.
Darth_Borah 1 year ago
I have one that can convert anything to 3D. It's a fun concept but I never think about using it.
Terry Rex 1 year ago
Glad I didn't waste my money on that. They never got below 1000$ and that was just for the TV. The glasses were extra. I previewed several at best buy and was not impressed. The active ones gave me a headache and the passive ones didn't do a very good job of making it look real.
TheReader19 1 year ago
I have one of these; not sure if the 3d works. It's just fine as a TV and over 10 years old with no issues.
#6
New Coke. The company changed the recipe, and people were so mad that within 3 months they brought back the old one, which is why today it's called Coke Classic.
Robin 1 year ago
Wasn't this all a tactic to change the recipe to cheeper products, new coke was made to fail intentionally so they could bring back "old" coke but actually changed the recipe a little. Or am I misremembering?
Deborah B 1 year ago
Nope, it was in response to Pepsi's increasing market share. They did blind taste testing that showed that Pepsi was preferred, and were afraid of losing market leadership. Part of the reason for the flop is that they did "Sip tests" where the subject takes one sip of each, and says which they prefer. But what tastes good for one sip, doesn't necessarially please when you drink a full serving. The sip test was biased towards the sweeter drink. You give the same customers a pallet of each to drink as many as they want at home over a month, and a lot of them think the sweet one is too sweet.
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Maudelin 1 year ago
Unless you are drinking Mexican Coke which uses real sugar, you are just drinking and paying for high fructose corn syrup.
I just work here 1 year ago
If I have a coke, I will only drink the Mexican coke. Anything with hfcs is thick and doesn't help my thirst.
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MisterPaul 1 year ago
They stopped calling it Coke Classic in 2009. Now it just says "Coca-Cola" and "original taste"
Sharon Vaughn 1 year ago
And now they've changed it again calling it the "best Coke ever." They just can't compete with Pepsi.
The expert began by saying that there are several different reasons why people tend to act this way, including personal gain and insecurities. But while many people usually associate the “next big thing” with something of a worldwide scale, this can just as well apply to smaller things, like dating, that, on a personal level, can have just as much, if not more, significance.
“In online dating, people oversell and lie -- a lot! Around 80% of online daters lie, according to one study,” said the therapeutic life coach, explaining that many men oversell themselves by embellishing their job title and lying about their height, age, or even marital status.
#7
Crypto
Paul Macdonell 1 year ago
At some point governments, sick of criminals using crypto, will require full sender and receiver exposure. This will kill the need for crypto
TotallyNOTAFox 1 year ago (edited)
A lot of crypto currency isn't even as anonymous as it was years ago
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Robert A Reider Jr 1 year ago (edited)
My best friend and I exchanged gag gifts on birthdays. One year I bought him $35 of Amazon stock (2 shares) he bought me 25 Bitcoin. That was just after the first successful Bitcoin purchase, a pizza for 25 Bitcoin, so the joke was here's a white elephant"gift card" for a pie. I honestly didn't know what it was. I thought it was money for online games so my wallet sat unused. UNTIL it was all over the news that it hit $5000. I took on the arduous task of dumping it. Laughing my tookie off...Imagine if I held it? I can't think about that now, not without Xanax. (Btw, bestie tried to sue me for the money, besties no longer. Wonder if he still has that Amazon stock)
StrangeOne 1 year ago
One of the problems with crypto is that it's so expensive for the average person. It was mostly used as something to invest in for the future. Not enough businesses accepted crypto. The news media was claiming it was made to eventually replace the traditional currency in place.
Chelsea McKee 1 year ago
I like crypto, and I wish there was a better way to deter hackers. Like, you're telling me you honestly can't trace my crypto's location? I don't believe it. ☕ I'm sure there would be a way to at least flag stolen currency but everyone tells me no.
Ellen Lanser 1 year ago
crypto currency on a blockchain is the only fair way of keeping your money safe. it's 100% transparent, everybody can look where it comes from and where it goes to, so it's beyond me that the "criminal" label that the establishment gives it, is successful. governments and banks want control, they can't have that with crypto
Karen Bryan 1 year ago
Can't recall who it was, but I'm with the guy who said, "Go to Vegas instead. The food is better".
#8
Meta. Lol, who ever thought that rebranding would would be a good thing was an idiot.
Erik Decker 1 year ago
It wasn't a rebranding, it was a restructuring. Google did it to, they're actually Alphabet. Doing so allows them to more efficiently use funding, and boosts the entire flow of the company. Next.
Nimues Child 1 year ago
Google was smart enough to reorganize under Alphabet, but not dump its best known brands.
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David Avegala 1 year ago
Meta was announced very shortly after it was revealed Mark Zuckerberg lied under oath to congress. It was meant to be a distraction, and it succeeded perfectly.
Shane G 1 year ago (edited)
Facebook rebranded as Meta and then sank tens of billions of dollars into a virtual reality hangout place called the metaverse. It pitched itself as Rrady Player One, but it looked less impressive than Nintendo Miis
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Sgraham 1 year ago
Facebook was invented by some Harvard under graduates who were evaluating the girls on campus ona simple home made website. Basically a computer meat market.quite disgusting really.
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Metaverse
Virgil Blue 1 year ago
The problem.is in my eyes is that they tried to replicate real life things like shopping malls and clothing stores almost 1 to 1 in VR instead of making new and amazing things people would want to experience. Who the heck wants to hold a VR meeting in a replica digital office looking like a giant teddybear or something.
Ron Baza 1 year ago
Either you go for safe ideas - ones that are reminiscent of “A camel is a horse designed by a committee” - or you’re having huge swings and frequent misses. Some spectacular stuff, but stuff that gets laughed out of town and could kill the product stone dead.
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Greg Wilhelm 1 year ago
How are the graphics in this that dogshit?!?! Blew my mind when I first saw it. Such a failure in today's standards already. Look at RDR2, made in 2018, compared to this garbage....
staceybeaverhausen 1 year ago
just play Second Life. 20 plus year old virtual world and you can't get Zucked on it
KombatBunni 1 year ago
Exactly. It’s been cleaned up a bit since I last played. Cracking down on virtual gambling and the like..still a ways to go however
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But while we found out why people tend to oversell things, the question of why some also fall for them still remains. Well, according to the expert, it’s sometimes as simple as people desperately wanting to believe in something because of how incredibly wonderful it would be if it were true.
When we fantasize about something that we want strongly enough, we can become blind to every sign saying that it’s not real. Continuing on his dating example, Nick said, “The human desire for love can be a strong one -- and even if there are obvious red flags (such as something appearing too good to be true), some may still choose to ignore such red flags to fulfill the fantasy of finding love and lasting happiness.”
#10
The U.S. “going metric.” We were taught as kids that we’d be thinking in kg and meters by the time we were adults.
Jeff White 1 year ago
I am from the US. The Metric system is demonstrably better than Imperial. I can "force" you to admit that after 3 - 4 one minute demonstrations. The US is being idiotic maintaining its adherence to the Imperial system
Jay Son 1 year ago
Even more weird is that they use metric in the US in the medical world, as well as the military..
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Jen 1 year ago
Try being British... We seem to have a confusing system which uses both, depending on what you are measuring and why. 🍌 for scale.
TP Johnson 1 year ago
Yep. Sometimes it's miles, sometimes kilometers. Weight in stones? WTF
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keyboardtek 1 year ago
Anyone who enters an engineering, science, or medical field in USA uses metric.
JenniB 1 year ago
Canadian born in the 70's so metric already in schools by the time I got there and to this day I have NO idea how much I weigh in kg or how tall I am in cm. I do however know both Celsius and Fahrenheit very well. Maybe being US adjacent has influenced this...
Leekier 1 year ago
In the U.K. we had a sort of voluntary metrication where it was encouraged but not compulsory from the mid 60s most places had the prices for imperial and the prices for metric side by side. It became compulsory after carpet shops went rogue and displayed by displaying the cheaper imperial price only but letting customers think it was the metric price. I’m in my 70s and can use both systems because I grew up with one and learned the other.
Load More Replies... Doug the Special one 1 year ago
I am old enough to remember both systems and I still use both in my work as a handyman. Its great to be able to swap between both systems.
Brian Droste 1 year ago
I believe President Nixon started/wanted the US to switch over to the metric system. I went through high school between 1974 and 1978 and learning about the metric system sometime during that period. I belive that is when the cola companies switch from like 16 oz to 1 ltrs and 2 liters bottles.
Paul Macdonell 1 year ago
The US using imperial measurements is like an old guy wearing a hair mullet...... He thinks he's cool while everyone laughs behind his back.
Albert Roberts 1 year ago
I was born in 1977 and I never heard this just that it'd make more sense and that we probably never would.
Charles McChristy 1 year ago
I was born in 1977 and heard that all the time. They stopped pressing it by high school.
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#11
BlackBerry without the keyboard. Fell flat on its face. Too bad was a great Canadian company and a world leader in mobile devices until they got so arrogant they thought they knew what the consumer wanted but didn't. Buh bye BB.
Jeremy James 1 year ago
I miss physical keyboards on mobile devices. Even the clunky old T9 keypads were cool because you could discreetly write and send a text message from your pocket. Try doing that on a touch screen.
detective miller's hat 1 year ago
SAME. LG's the V was the best phone ever.
Load More Replies... Roland 1 year ago
I miss BB. Towards the end I was relentlessly mocked by family, friends and colleagues for still holding up (using one of the last weird 4:3 ratio blackberry passport). The best phone I ever had is still the BB 9900 touch and type with physical keyboard, touch screen and track pad. It was just awesome
Cuppa tea? 1 year ago
Still can type faster on physical keypad than on virtual on mobile. On tablet it's slightly better as keypad is bigger, but I still lack the confidence of knowing what I'm typing without looking. Just knowing that pressing keys once, twice or three times gives you certain letter or number is missing.
MagicJacket 1 year ago
Just watched the "Blackberry" movie. Fantastic performance from Gleen Howerton. The BlackBerry Storm, with the onscreen keyboard, was the first model they had built in China, and it was c**p. Something like 90% of them were sent back to be repaired or replaced.
Chelsea McKee 1 year ago
I loved BlackBerry. When I saw them on the stock market I was in disbelief. Then I noticed that they no longer sell cellphones and was disappointed. What's the point in keeping the same name if you're selling an entirely different product than what made you popular?
Cass Malone 1 year ago
I really liked the keyboard on my phone. I found it easier to type. also your keyboard didn't have to be an app 😕
Erica Cochrane 1 year ago
the best phone i ever had was my xperia x10 mini pro. yeah, it was tiny, but it had a slide out keyboard which was just amazing!
Nimitz 1 year ago
They came out with the Z10 and Z30 just too late. I remember being asked to test them for my work. They were awesome phones, and the auto-complete was AMAZING if you had a complicated job (it picked up on words like chromatograph and calorimeter without issue). So good, but too little too late
#12
Quibi, the streaming service with 5-10 minute long tv shows meant to be watched on mobile. They spent nearly $2 billion, recruited A List celebrities, were run by a former Disney executive/cofounder of Dreamworks, and completely tanked within 6 months. I believe they try to blame their failure on the pandemic, but realistically, this is what happens when a bunch of out-of-touch media executives get too into being “data-driven” and think they can synergize and scale their way into being cool. I have worked with this particular kind of star-f*cker executive and it was so satisfying and validating to see this stuff fail.
Shane G 1 year ago
They did indeed try to blame the pandemic, which is hilarious since the pandemic greatly increased streaming.
pep Ito 1 year ago
During COVID they were unable to record the hundreds of videos needed to keep the platform alive while the rest of the OTTs had an extensive catalog and YouTubers, tiktokers and the like were recording from home.
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Rostit.. . 1 year ago
this was purely a profit grab. It was pretty obvious from the beginning it was never going to work.
Ken Beattie 1 year ago
I can actually see what they thought it was a good idea. I mean kids seem to have stupidly short attention spans so a 5-10 minute episode makes sense for them. Assuming the content is good enough. That said, I think it'd also depend a lot on the type of content too. I think it'd suit sketch comedy far better than a murder mystery for example.
quentariel 1 year ago
This is something I've never even heard of. So I guess it failed pretty bad.
But when it comes to something that’s supposed to be the “next big thing,” perhaps it’s not always about overselling something that you know is not what you present it to be. After all, there is a saying that the more you announce your goals to others, the less likely you are to achieve them.
When we asked Nick whether he thought there was any truth in this saying, he answered that it depends on who you’re announcing to and how you’re doing it. “Social accountability can actually be a powerful tool,” said the expert, explaining that announcing your goals can be very useful if you do it for something more than just attracting attention.
#13
World war I. It was supposed to be the war to end all wars.
Ace 1 year ago
It was actually first called "the first world war" as early as 1914.
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TotallyNOTAFox 1 year ago
And in a sense of irony it kinda was the main reason for World War 2 given the events resulting from it
Luke Branwen 1 year ago
I remember The Simpsons. "Why do you call it World War 1?" "YOU WILL SEE!"
Šimon Špaček 1 year ago
Well... I guess that people said this about every bigger war. Like hundred-year war. War will never end, it is too deep in us. And before you say anything about stopping wars, think for a moment. Think about that one colleague or neighbor or classmate you had that you really hated. The one you cannot stand if your life would depend on it. You never did anything to that person (probably), but you had dreams about beating him with a stapler. Now imagine that you have 5 people like that around, each hates at least 2 others in that group and you are supposed to make some decision together that will cost each of you some time and some money.
Roan The Demon Kitty 1 year ago
what's more depressing to think about is that there were people who lived through one war only to be met by another one only 21 years later. Imagine being in your 30's or something, you go to war, you come back, you're settling into your 50's, ready for an easier life but no. some guy got angry about art college (/s)
Crybabyartist 1 year ago
Yeah, those guys at the Bauhaus really did screw us up...it was them all along. Imagine all the lovely things that are still a part of our lives because of Bauhaus design.... Tons of things you never think of. I'm serious it's tons of things... Chicago would not exist with out the Bauhaus. But what could a man with the power to create such revenge have done with a positive influence? Ever really think about how sooooo much Nazi propaganda was art related at the time. I want to go shake Gropius and others.
Load More Replies... Lara Verne 1 year ago
When WWI started, there were quite optimistic predictions. They though it will be over in a few weeks. It gotten out of hand very quickly.
Guess Undheit 1 year ago
The biggest mistake of World War 1 was castrating Germany and stealing its wealth. That resentment is what made Hitler's rise to power possible. The same goes today with israel's war crimes and genocidal mentality, not giving jews worldwide mental health care after World War 2. Instead, they were given a country and armed to the teeth for no reason.
#14
The term “Fetch”
Dee Breezy 1 year ago
What???? Me and my fancy pantsed hipster friends use "fetch" all the time!!
Crybabyartist 1 year ago
If you're going to use fetch, then you should stay consistent and call them fancy bloomers.
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Ravens Mom 1 year ago
I don't even use that with my dog - I just say "get the ball" and he does :)
#15
Flying cars.
Mike D 1 year ago
After seeing how people drive on rods, do you really want them free in 3D space?
Thomas Ewing 1 year ago
In the 1940s it was thought that everyone would have a helicopter by 1960.
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TotallyNOTAFox 1 year ago
I think a Gyrocopter would be a more fitting comparison
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Thomas Ewing 1 year ago
To have a flying car, it would weigh too much to fly fast, or it would be too light to handle safely on the ground. No middle ground. Drive to an airport--it's better.
“12-Step recovery programs like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) involve a lot of social accountability, such as by sharing progress in meetings or with a recovery coach (known as a ‘sponsor’),” continued Nick, adding that according to one study, when it comes to keeping people sober, AA has actually shown a lot more effectiveness that therapies like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).
“As human beings, some of us do not like to look bad in front of others or let people down. As a life coach myself, accountability is also something I find for my own clients to be quite an effective tool for helping them break through procrastination and helping them achieve their goals,” summarized the therapeutic life coach.
#16
Minidiscs.
Philly Bob Squires 1 year ago
I still have 2 recorders and a player! I used the extesively in recording live shows off of soundboards in the day. A great concept but MP3s and streaming killed it.
Csaba Horvath 1 year ago (edited)
Was not a fail! There are enthusiasts around now too, and equipment sells expensively. It's not a fail when something got a successor.
Lester the Space Duck 1 year ago
I still have a minidisc player and my mz r37 portable player/recorder that I used through college to record lectures.
Tomaz Zsthorother 1 year ago
Minidisc was hugely popular in Japan, it was just the West where it didn't really take off.
Fester Sixonesixonethree 1 year ago
CDs in general. Nobody uses them anymore. But the minidiscs were great as fancy business cards - data printed on the front, in depth on the CD. Nobody uses CDs anymore.
Cuppa tea? 1 year ago
Not sure if main reason was protective patent policy, Sony just wouldn't let it open to another manufacturer. So nobody jumped on the bandwagon.
Rahb in Oz 1 year ago
HUH? Plenty of other brands "jumped on the bandwagon" although Sony tended to have the best products on the market. I had an Aiwa recorder/player. (This brand was subsequently bought by Sony.)
Load More Replies... keyboardtek 1 year ago
I was a Yamaha authorized service center. The minidisc mechanism was not field servicable. We had to send them to the factory for repair. And out of warranty repairs were expensive.
Crybabyartist 1 year ago
My Yamaha CX5M II-128 keyboard is still working perfectly. In the mean time I've seen new keyboards die a wear out under my fingers. I still believe that the digital algorithm operator system was never explored. (well I have spend hours and created intense non marimba pads.
Load More Replies... Terry Rex 1 year ago (edited)
I had 2 mini disc players and one home recorder still have one today and a bunch of discs full of music. Don't use it anymore but it still works. They were a great idea. With a poor company executing it. Sony got greedy and didn't want to allow it to be used as a data device for PC.
#17
The Titanic.
Kirsten Kerkhof 1 year ago
Titanic was part of a very excellent class of ocean liners. This particular ship just happened to sink on its maiden voyage with some exceptionally prominent people on board. It was very very tragic, but in and by itself the ship was no worse than her sister ships Olympic (sailed for 35 years till worn out and scrapped), and Britannic (sadly lost to a mine during WW1).
Oddball 1 year ago
THAT DOOR WAS PLENTY BIG ENOUGH FOR 2!!! I'm sorry about that rant, the pic just hit a nerve in me.
bill marsano 1 year ago
Actually, Titanic has never really gone away--the iceberg gave her immortality. Had she not, so to speak, won the silver medal in that event, she'd have gone on serving for 20 or 30 years. aging steadily and, eventually, badly, only to be scrapped and turned into razor blades, remembered by few--instead of perpetually celebrated in books, movies, songs, art and plays.
#18
Ngage, a phone and and a videogame system! Too bad you had to remove the battery whenever you wanted to change games.
Jesha 1 year ago (edited)
Ah, the sublime beauty of the design of the faceplate looking like goats.e. Breathtaking.
Paul Scheermeijer 1 year ago
I had both versions.. both with a large SD card. And multiple games on it including sat nav. I was the bomb back in the day.
2bwhctmvgn 1 year ago
It's still hysterical how you had to hold it in order to use it as a phone.
In the end, just like Nick said, there are many reasons why people tend to oversell things that eventually flop. But whether it’s because of personal gain, insecurities, overexcitement, or anything else, we can’t really stop people from doing it. There will always be big promises that sound too good to be true, and it will always be nice to fantasize about what it would be like if they did come through. But to avoid disappointment with these things, keeping just a bit of skepticism won't hurt.
What did you think about this story? What are some of the “next big things” that eventually flopped that you would add to this list? Type it all in the comments below!
#19
400 million in funding that evaporated gives it to Theranos.
Shane S 1 year ago
I think she would have been a great CEO of a company with a legit, working product or service. She had the drive and motivation. But she went down a dark path so we will never know…
Ben 1 year ago (edited)
Did you watch the show made about her or read anything about her? Especially from people that had worked for her. She is a horrible person that fired anybody that questioned her or tried to warn her and do the right thing. She has all the hallmarks of a psychopath. She hurt a lot of people.
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#20
M. Night Shyamalan was once called the next Spielberg...
LonelyLittleLeafSheep 1 year ago
I like most of them. Unpopular opinion, but Lady in the Water is actually my favorite. Hated it at first, rewatched it a couple of times over the years, learned it was a fairytale for his kids, and then rewatched again and really found I enjoyed the story. Also a big fan of Paul Giamatti.
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I just work here 1 year ago
High five. That made me laugh out loud hard..
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Sky Render 1 year ago (edited)
He could have been, had he developed more than one technique! In a way the success of The Sixth Sense was one of the biggest failures of his career since it set the precedent for what he made from then on.
LonelyLittleLeafSheep 1 year ago
Spielberg is overrated. Actually, ALL of Hollywood is overrated.
Fester Sixonesixonethree 1 year ago
I was done after the slaughter he made of The Last Avatar. He mutilated the canon and expected nobody to object! What an idiot!
Linds 1 year ago
As soon as I heard "Ohng" instead of Aang, I noped out. Plus the whitewashing... how can you mess up a name when it's already been spoken? I do have some hope for the new ATLA live series though. If memory serves, M. Knight got so angry at ppl hating his movie because "artistic interpretation". Like bruh... you can't change/mess up a well loved series and expect the fan base to be happy.
Load More Replies... #21
Laserdisc.
2bwhctmvgn 1 year ago
:( It was an amazing format at the time. It was about twice the horizonal resolution of VHS, and supported anamorphic encoding, so you didn't lose a significant amount of that horizonal resolution to letterboxed black bars (if you had a compatible TV). It's most long-lasting innovation, though, may have been that it introduced commentary tracks.
Rinso the Red 1 year ago
Great uncle of mine worked for the local news station had a laserdisc player when I was a kid. I remember watching Alien and it blew my mind. Also, the left over space was often used for a new concept: Bonus features!
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Philly Bob Squires 1 year ago
I had over 200 LDs! I actually still have 2 laying around but hey. I actually got lucky and sold them all just before DVD hit.
Fat Harry 1 year ago
No. Laserdiscs were 12" (approx 30cm - the same as vinyl albums) and were actually analogue rather than digital. They were a step up from VHS for home cinema, but were more limited in capacity. Fun fact: the arcade game Dragon's Lair used laserdiscs!
Load More Replies... Kraneia The Dancing Dryad 1 year ago
The inside tray of laserdisc players was what pioneer based their logo on.
Evripidou Maria 1 year ago
laserdisc.. I wou;dn;t call them a failure, They WERE the big thing between casette and mp3
CrazyKnitter 1 year ago
I had Star Wars and Indiana Jones on laserdisc. My husband makes fun of me because I still tense up to change the laserdisc for Star Wars, I watched it so much.
#22
2012 apocalypse
Luke Branwen 1 year ago
People say that the 2012 apocalpyse was fake, but in a sense... it was around that time the world ceased to feel real.
Danielle 1 year ago (edited)
The town I was staying, the volcano started erupting right before before the end of the Mayan calendar and there was a minute there where I thought: huh, well I guess I'll die then. The volcano was fine, just loud and ashy, we watched it erupt from across the valley whilst drinking at 'Fiesta Para Fin Del Mundo'
#23
Fidget spinners were big in 2017. I can't find one now, and I don't know what else to do with my hands.
Nichole Harris 1 year ago
Go to the dollar only store in a bad neighborhood..... Meth heads love those
Kraneia The Dancing Dryad 1 year ago
You could probably still order them off Amazon
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DrBronxx 1 year ago
These were never thought to be "the next best thing". They were a fad, and almost everyone at the time knew that. Also, whoever made this post clearly hasn't been trying very hard; just go to Amazon and search for them. There are tons.
Leekier 1 year ago
We’ve 4 relatives on the autistic spectrum aged between 6 and 40 who all find spinners helpful.
Load More Replies... Bored something 1 year ago
My work sells them. Lots of people still buy them, not just drug addicts.
Adam Belaire 1 year ago
Really? I still see a few boxes sitting at the counter of the 7-11 just there.
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
Still widely available, we use them and other 'fidgets' in after school care a lot!
bElLa sTairZz 1 year ago
was heartbroken when they banned them in my class, didnt even use them. something just felt worse
#24
Amazon's Fire Phone.
Ms.GB 1 year ago
Nothing with the word fire in the title seems to do well...Fire phone, fire tablet, fyre festival
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Hphizzle 1 year ago
The fire tablet is nice for the price point. For just entertainment purposes, it holds its own.
Cat Chat 1 year ago
For anyone with a Prime membership, it's also a good option for kids up to pre-teen. My girls are at that age, however, that they will soon be wanting games they will continue to use in their adult years, so will be switching them to Android in the next year or so. But yeah, even for adults, if you only need something for entertainment, it's a cheap option. There are ways to "Google-ize" them, too.
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Javelina Poppers 1 year ago
My boss years ago gave everyone a Fire tablet for Christmas. We were all thrilled till we figured out it was a massive POS. Can't blame the boss as his heart was in the right place.
#25
Betamax
DeShotz 1 year ago
VHS was a more open format, whereas Betamax was tightly controlled by Sony. That, and some people say that the adult entertainment industry going with VHS may have been a major factor.
Albert Roberts 1 year ago
That isn't hearsay about the adult industry it's true.
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Anthony Czuczman 1 year ago
Betamax is actually superior to VHS and was used in television studios for production for decades after betamax left the consumer market.
2bwhctmvgn 1 year ago
No. Betamax (the consumer product) and Betacam (the TV industry product) were wildly different, despite using very similar physical tape cartridges.
Load More Replies... Guess Undheit 1 year ago
Betamax vs VHS wasn't about picture and sound quality, it was minutes per tape. A VHS held more, requiring one tape instead of two. Why would you buy/rent something you have to swap tapes halfway through a movie?
Sky Render 1 year ago
It survived for a long time in the television news scene! But it never had a prayer of overtaking VHS in the home video market.
2bwhctmvgn 1 year ago
Betacam, the format used by TV news studios, is not the same as Betamax. Also, Betamax predated VHS. It couldn't overtake VHS; VHS overtook it.
Load More Replies... Brian Droste 1 year ago (edited)
Betaamax was supposed to be better quality tape than VHS, but was a shorter tape length than VHS. So it would take two tapes to record on than one tape of VHS. That is my understanding partly why Betamax failed.
Rahb in Oz 1 year ago
When Betamax came to Australia in 1981 (I obviously cannot comment on before that) it was able to record 3.15 hours on an L750 tape, and even longer on the L830 tapes which were introduced later. For some obscure reason, PAL recording took less tape than NTSC, despite having more bandwidth! Also, Sony introduced all of the advances in VCR technology, including skip/scan, able to watch while fast forwarding thru commercials, Beta HiFi etc, all of which VHS copied at a lower resolution.
Load More Replies... bill marsano 1 year ago
DeShotz: Exactly right. Same w/Open Architecture v. Apple , the foundational Computer Age conflict. The 'Open" view was to grow by letting everyone in; Steve Jobs demanded to be paid. Result: tsunamic quantities of apps for PC, almost no independent apps for Apple. Despite that, some people (urged by media hucksters) consider Jobs a visionary and a genius. That is all BS: he was a salesman (a superb one) who knew nothing about coding--that was all Wozniak.. He was a greedy SOB (check out his philanthropy or "giving back" vs. that of Bill Gates). He cheated Woz on their very first deal. He thought, aocording to one close associate, that the iPhone was ONLY a phone. In short, he completely failed to understand the Computer Revolution.
Rahb in Oz 1 year ago
I bought a Mac in 2006. I was constantly surprised at how much easier it was to do SO many things on the Mac than Windows, which I had grown up with. So far, nothing has changed!
Load More Replies... Csaba Horvath 1 year ago (edited)
It was better that the concurrent systems. And was used widely by professionals.
Eric Forster 1 year ago
My first VCR was a Betamax. When I worked Friday nights, I would record Miami Vice.
#26
There was this lady who said laboratory testing could be reduced to a machine the size of a microwave… turns out it was all a scam.
Nimitz 1 year ago
Not all a scam though. She said she could run dozens of tests on a couple drops of blood. Pure BS. But organ/tissue tests on a chip are making real progress. She just took real science and used it to sell her c**p. But we're actually rolling out the real technology that will help people
Herb Skovronek 1 year ago
All I know is that my MD calls me with the results by the time I get home!! Who cares how big the magic box is?
Ben 1 year ago
For someone that use to work in a laboratory that tested blood samples, I always knew it was a scam. Those testing machines are huge. And certain types of tests needed certain type of chemical in the testing tube. Plus, pricking a finger in my opinion is way more painful than a very small needle. It never made sense but nobody wanted to see it.
#27
DivX. DIVX was a rental format variation on the DVD player in which a customer would buy a DIVX disc (similar to a DVD) for approximately US$4.50, which was watchable for up to 48 hours from its initial viewing. After this period, the disc could be viewed by paying a continuation fee to play it for two more days. Viewers who wanted to watch a disc an unlimited number of times could convert the disc to a "DIVX silver" disc for an additional fee. It lasted for about a year back in the late 1990s before dying — even with the backing of major studios who wanted a piece of the video rental market. Edit: thanks to those who pointed out the error in my reference to DIVX (the unsuccessful rental company) vs DivX (the compression CODEC).
Crybabyartist 1 year ago
I have a room full of DVD's.. used to have a ton of 33 1/3 vinyl (Herm got that) Got shelves full of VCR catridges.. F**k all your new formats to hell and go to hell for thinking about changing things... just go to hell!! GO!!!!!!!!! Faster!!
MrsFettesVette 1 year ago (edited)
i was going to say this! I can remember being in Circuit City with my bf at the time and he said something to me about it not lasting and some guy overheard us and said, "I hope not, my entire entertainment library is Divx I just invested in a top of the line player". Oof
cadena kuhn 1 year ago
I actually liked these used to get them at the gas station in college. Would use them for crafts when they were done.
#28
Google Stadia/Streaming Games (in general)
CG 1 year ago (edited)
I agree. I do stream some games via PS Plus, and while it does have some minor issues, it does get a steady stream of new games every month. Stadia's issues were with it's connectivity, lack of worthwhile exclusives, and ports generally being worse than the console/PC counterparts. Plus, streaming games is included in my PS Plus membership.
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#29
Taleo. It was supposed to be this site that, if I remember correctly, would enable you to just have a resume and you could quickly apply to a job and submit a cover letter.
Guess HR people got tired of all the resumes that were junk. We have LinkedIn and Indeed Instant apply, but really, I just wanted a central place to upload my resume to apply for jobs.
Max Fox 1 year ago (edited)
The questions: What is your name? Where was your last position? How long did you work there? What did you do? Etc, etc, etc...
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Kraneia The Dancing Dryad 1 year ago
Indeed is a scam. They sell your info. Use a burner email if you sign up, your inbox will be full five minutes after signing up.
Robert Beveridge 1 year ago
" I just wanted a central place to upload my resume to apply for jobs." Does Monster no longer exist?
#30
Sega Dreamcast
TheGoodBoi 1 year ago
Looooved the Dreamcast. Visiting my cousins, we'd play this all day and night.
AngelWingsYT 1 year ago
Its regarded as ome of the worst video game fails
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Ozymandias73 1 year ago
It was better than the SEGA Saturn! I actually like the Dreamcast system and its huge memory cartridges.
Shane G 1 year ago
The Dreamcast was the greatest console to ever exist for fighting game lovers (sorry Neo Geo). I still remember how mindblowing it was to see Soul Calibur looking and playing exactly the same as the arcade. Every arcade port on it was perfect, and that had never been done before outside of the Neo Geo.
detective miller's hat 1 year ago
I still have my Sega Saturn. It had some great games that were never released on any other platform.
#31
The XFL
Mike F 1 year ago
Personally, they could play football (US football) on my lawn and I wouldn't watch it so the addition of yet ANOTHER league appeals to me even less.
Ozymandias73 1 year ago
It was a different take on football. Same concept but w/modified or different rules. I liked how instead of a kick-off, the teams would rush for the football on the 50 yard line. It had promise, but fizzled.
Sarah Schumm 1 year ago
I did graphic design for the local XFL team, the San Francisco Demons, and they were the most popular team in the XFL, but it was because it was the cheapest way to check out the then brand new baseball stadium.
Guess Undheit 1 year ago
The clowns that keep starting new football leagues never get it: If you offer the same product but at a lower quality, nobody will buy it unless it's a better value. If you want to be noticed at a lower budget, you have to do something different. Arena football was semi-successful because it was different. If spring outdoor football leagues were 7-man or 8-man (smaller rosters, fewer salaries, same ticket revenue), or smaller players like "Sprint Football" college football (look it up) you might have something you can sell. There are many places in yankland that have 6-, 7-, 8-, or 9-man football.
#32
Lifi, WiFi that works with light reflections, all reflective surfaces in the house must be eliminated, so safe to assume it wasn't very successful amongst people who use their phone in the toilet.
Cat Chat 1 year ago
Actually, yes. I mean, who doesn't use their phone while on the toilet? 🤷♀️😉
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Rostit.. . 1 year ago
no... Lifi was a plasma source light engine. Li-Fi was the data over light thing. does anyone check these before posting them?
Tiddlez 1 year ago
I'm not religious I just thought the comment might be funny
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Rebecca McManus 1 year ago
I remember my father talking about how he seriously thought about networking the organisation he worked for using lasers instead of relying on underground cables, so suspect he meant this. He dismissed the plan when he realised how many pigeons there were in Newport City centre
Tiffany Denchfield 1 year ago
Just looked it up and sounds like it has a lot of potential but it's not being utilized properly. Someday?
#33
Single-stage-to-orbit spacecraft. This one might take a bit of explaining. You'll obviously be familiar with the Space Shuttle, which was retired in 2011 with no immediate replacement. But the thing is, even back in the 1990s, NASA was already looking at what the Space Shuttle's successor would be. And one idea they really fixed on was that, whatever this replacement would be, it would have to be a *single-stage rocket.* See, the space shuttle itself was reusable, but it relied on disposable outboard rockets to reach space, and those had to be replaced after every flight. So, the logic went, if a spacecraft could launch and reach orbit all in one piece-- without dumping its rocket boosters every time-- then it would be cheaper and more efficient. NASA decided to build something called the X-33, which was this funny-looking triangle-shaped spacecraft that could fly up to space and back using just its own engines. It didn't need any rocket boosters the way the shuttle did. So for a while in the 1990s, it looked like single-stage spacecraft were the way of the future. But as they say, reality bites. It turned out that the X-33's special engines made it too heavy to fly, let alone reach space, and it was cancelled in 2001 before the prototype was finished. After that, NASA kind of fell out of love with the whole single-stage-to-orbit concept, and to this day they've never built one.
DeShotz 1 year ago
The solid rocket boosters were recovered and reused. Only the external fuel tank was expended with each launch.
Bill Swallow 1 year ago
"Only the external fuel tank was expended with each launch." And with only a small reduction in payload capacity, the external tank could also have been flown up to orbit and put to use for whatever purposes we could imagine and engineer.
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Sky Render 1 year ago
If they can ever get the SABRE engine to work right, SSTOs might stand a chance. But the SABRE has been in development hell for the last 30 years. (It's a jet engine that can switch to rocket propulsion, which cuts the needed engines on a craft down considerably and thus the weight profile as well. Every ounce counts when you're dealing with the tyranny of the rocket equation!)
Bill Swallow 1 year ago
One such concept that actually got around to bending metal and flying (a scale version, anyway) was the Delta Clipper / DC-X. Look for videos and articles about it on YouTube. A blunt cone, with a square cross section at the base, it pioneered retropropulsive landings a la the SpaceX Falcon series (much like SpaceX's Grasshopper and Starhopper), including a 'death swoop' as demonstrated by the Starship test flights of its upper stage. Sadly, the scale prototype tipped over and caught fire after an otherwise successful landing, and the program was canceled. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv9n9Casp1o&t=1s and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL9cLvYIDPE&t=1s
Bill Swallow 1 year ago
The X-33 VentureStar was an interesting idea, and I'm sorry we never got to see it's Aerospike engine fly. But their engineering didn't live up to their vision, and among the many issues they ran up against was the composite fuel tank delaminating during testing.
Ruby Serene 1 year ago
Rocket boosters for SpaceX have controlled landings. They land in a specific spot where they can be taken back, and they're reusable.
Apatheist Account2 1 year ago
Hmmm... triangle-shaped experimental aircraft...and those recent UFO sightings are...?
Teresa Spanics 1 year ago
That is one concept that is ahead of its time. When the technology is there, we might see it come true in the future.
#34
The resurrection of the DCEU, now will get a reset.
#35
Ouya.
Jesha 1 year ago
So many of my friends were completely geeked about this thing and SO excited for it to release. Never heard them talk about it again, but I'm still curious to try one.
InfiniteZeek 1 year ago
Just buy an Android tablet (Samsungs are great). That is basically what it was.
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Joe McNuts 1 year ago
Got one as a gift, played it for a while and it's still in a box somewhere.
What do you think ?
DeoManus Argentem 1 year ago
No Segway? Was kept secret for so long as the thing that would "completely revolutionize our society."
Rostit.. . 1 year ago
no, segways are doing just fine. They are all over the place.
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Guess Undheit 1 year ago
ALL “12-step recovery programs" are religious cults, and their claims of "success" are buckshot. They only count the "successes" and don't count the failures when claiming percentages.
bElLa sTairZz 1 year ago
hey, some of them are just cults. no religion involved
Load More Replies... Rostit.. . 1 year ago
You all just posted this exact thread a week ago. Same items basically too. Also, Blackberry was not a company. They were called RIM.
RosenCranzLives 1 year ago
They still exist, mostly as a business software systems company.
Load More Replies... Carl Roberts 1 year ago
Nuon. Was supposed to be the next step in DVD interactivity, and intended to compete with video game systems. Only a handful of players were made, only 4 films were released on the format, and a few games.
Csaba Horvath 1 year ago (edited)
Many of these were never released. Others were used widely, so not failed, but got succeeded by something after a long period. Nobody mentioned MMS. So that was a fail.
Tiffany Wilson 1 year ago
Does anyone remember the streaming service that Movie Gallery tried to launch 18 years ago? I worked at the home office at the time and the box you had to buy was extremely expensive. You would pick a video and you had 48 hours to watch it and then it would disappear. They called it Movie Beam. It never left the ground.
DeoManus Argentem 1 year ago
No Segway? Was kept secret for so long as the thing that would "completely revolutionize our society."
Rostit.. . 1 year ago
no, segways are doing just fine. They are all over the place.
Load More Replies... Guess Undheit 1 year ago
ALL “12-step recovery programs" are religious cults, and their claims of "success" are buckshot. They only count the "successes" and don't count the failures when claiming percentages.
bElLa sTairZz 1 year ago
hey, some of them are just cults. no religion involved
Load More Replies... Rostit.. . 1 year ago
You all just posted this exact thread a week ago. Same items basically too. Also, Blackberry was not a company. They were called RIM.
RosenCranzLives 1 year ago
They still exist, mostly as a business software systems company.
Load More Replies... Carl Roberts 1 year ago
Nuon. Was supposed to be the next step in DVD interactivity, and intended to compete with video game systems. Only a handful of players were made, only 4 films were released on the format, and a few games.
Csaba Horvath 1 year ago (edited)
Many of these were never released. Others were used widely, so not failed, but got succeeded by something after a long period. Nobody mentioned MMS. So that was a fail.
Tiffany Wilson 1 year ago
Does anyone remember the streaming service that Movie Gallery tried to launch 18 years ago? I worked at the home office at the time and the box you had to buy was extremely expensive. You would pick a video and you had 48 hours to watch it and then it would disappear. They called it Movie Beam. It never left the ground.
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