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The 20 Biggest Tech Product Flops of All Time

By YPB Team

Recalls, cancellations, and a few that shipped and should not have. Some names here are still household brands; others vanished inside a year.

  1. Samsung Galaxy Note 7 — ranked #11
    Samsung Galaxy Note 7
    The 2016 flagship recalled worldwide and permanently discontinued after its batteries caught fire.
  2. Apple AirPower — ranked #22
    Apple AirPower
    Apple's multi-device charging mat, announced in 2017 and cancelled in 2019 before it ever shipped.
  3. Google Glass — ranked #33
    Google Glass
    A $1,500 face-worn computer that made its wearers a punchline and was pulled from consumers in 2015.
  4. Microsoft Zune — ranked #44
    Microsoft Zune
    Microsoft's answer to the iPod, launched in 2006 into a market the iPod had already won.
  5. Amazon Fire Phone — ranked #55
    Amazon Fire Phone
    Amazon's 2014 smartphone, discounted to 99 cents within months and written off at $170 million.
  6. Juicero — ranked #66
    Juicero
    A $699 juice press undone when reporters found the packs could be squeezed by hand.
  7. Nintendo Virtual Boy — ranked #77
    Nintendo Virtual Boy
    A 1995 red-on-black 3D console that caused headaches and was dropped inside a year.
  8. Segway — ranked #88
    Segway
    The self-balancing scooter hyped to reshape cities that instead became mall-security shorthand.
  9. Windows Vista — ranked #99
    Windows Vista
    Microsoft's 2007 operating system, so badly received that many buyers paid to downgrade to XP.
  10. Apple Newton — ranked #1010
    Apple Newton
    The 1993 handheld whose handwriting recognition was mocked in Doonesbury and The Simpsons.
  11. HP TouchPad — ranked #1111
    HP TouchPad
    HP's webOS tablet, killed 49 days after launch in one of the fastest retreats in tech.
  12. Nokia N-Gage — ranked #1212
    Nokia N-Gage
    A 2003 phone-console hybrid you had to hold sideways against your ear to take a call.
  13. Google Stadia — ranked #1313
    Google Stadia
    Google's cloud gaming service, shut down in 2023 with refunds issued to every buyer.
  14. Microsoft Kin — ranked #1414
    Microsoft Kin
    A social-networking phone pulled from sale roughly six weeks after its 2010 launch.
  15. Samsung Galaxy Fold (2019) — ranked #1515
    Samsung Galaxy Fold (2019)
    The first folding phone, delayed after review units broke within days of going out.
  16. MacBook Butterfly Keyboard — ranked #1616
    MacBook Butterfly Keyboard
    The 2015-2019 keyboard whose sticking keys cost Apple a $50 million class-action settlement.
  17. Ouya — ranked #1717
    Ouya
    A $99 Android games console crowdfunded to fame in 2012 and abandoned three years later.
  18. Sony Betamax — ranked #1818
    Sony Betamax
    The technically respected videotape format that lost the living room to VHS.
  19. BlackBerry PlayBook — ranked #1919
    BlackBerry PlayBook
    A 2011 tablet that shipped without the email app BlackBerry was famous for.
  20. CueCat — ranked #2020
    CueCat
    A free barcode scanner mailed to millions in 2000 so they could scan magazine ads at home.

#brands218#tech77#all-time318#gadgets21

Comments

Ninety-two overheating reports and about a million recalled handsets, next to a charging mat that never shipped and Google Glass: https://youpick.best/articles/apple-vs-samsung-ranked https://youpick.best/articles/google-ranked-many-ways

YP
ypb-team·Aug 21·
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