Technologies That Failed #Week 1

 

Hello there! 

    In this post I will be talking about some technologies ideas that failed and will mention 3 examples that I personally hadn't heard about. Although there are a lot of reasons why many ideas just don't get to see that beautiful moment of being sold, these three devices/ideas that I chose mainly died because they weren't strong enough to compete with other same-type products. But without any more blabbering let's start.

 

1.Google Lively

    Alphabet's Google in 2008 tried to make something similar to Liden Lab's virtual world "Second Life". This project was named "Lively" and was web-based virtual chat rooms that were supported by Adobe Flash. The main idea was to provide access to information through embedded "rooms" so the two-dimensional content could be discussed in three-dimensional room without needing another program.

    Some of the factors that led to Lively downfall was Liden Lab's virtual world was bigger and there you could sell and buy products, unlike in Google's. Also in Lively  there were limited options for personalizing avatars and it was a lot more complicated for communication compared to Facebook or other messengers. In the end this project was shut down after few months after it was released.

 

2.Facebook Home

    In 2013 Facebook tried to take over mobile OS specifically Android devices using "Facebook Home". This app was made to view and post on Facebook faster, message other users and also launch apps. This app was like a replacement home screen that of course also displayed Facebook notifications. 

    Although Facebooks idea to compete between already strong mobile platforms was brave consumer reviews quickly killed this idea. The app was admitted being too pushy and overbearing and of course as with all Facebook products security was also one of the issues. But this failure resulted in Facebook creating Messenger, so in some way it's a win.

 

3.Amazon's Fire Phone

    It could be said that was a bit arrogant thinking that they could replicate the success of "Kindle Fire" tablets that were a big hit and still are quite popular. But in 2014 they decided to launch "Fire Phone". They were mid-range hardware and starting point price was $199. However consumers were already happily using Android and Apple phones and Amazon's phone just didn't appeal to users, also it's price was too high for regular people and the. After seeing the lack of interest in their phones Amazon lowered the price to just $0.99, but overall this project resulted in huge loss and it was killed in 2015.

 

    So in conclusion I think that in this technology era it's becoming harder and harder to come up with new innovative ideas that are strong enough to compete with other similar products and at the same time be consumer friendly in price range and usage. But at the same time it only shows how unlimited is human imagination and how we learn from failures.

 

 

Sources:

https://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-the-10-biggest-tech-product-failures-of-the-past-decade-2017-6#amazons-fire-phone-9 (02.02.2021)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Phone#Critical_reception (02.02.2021)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Lively (02.02.2021)

 

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