Tech Trends that Ultimately Flopped

Since the beginning of time, people have been inventing and will continue to until the end of time. Most inventions are ingrained in our everyday lives that we cannot imagine, or barely remember, a world where they don’t exist.

Technology has evolved tremendously and produced amazing things. There have however been numerous technological failures that have occurred regardless of how great they were for their time. Some were pointless trends while others simply failed for other reasons. 

The Ouya Indie Game Console

Ouya planned to be unique in the video game console market where players could also act as developers. It never really made a success within the indie console industry as there many complaints about the controller’s construction, the poor graphics and low quality interface.

Generally, it was not a well-received console even after gaining massive interest online. Huge amounts of money were brought in as Kickstarter funds but by the time the console was ready for distribution, it was not as popular anymore.

Mattel’s Intellivision Home Game Console

The Intellivision from Mattel was released back in 1979 as an innovative home game console. It was developed very soon after its main competitor released the Atari 2600 and boasted graphics and sound that put the Atari 2600 to shame.

It was the very first 16 bit gaming system, the very first one that featured voice synthesis and also the first to have downloadable games that were downloaded via cable. The Intellivision was designed poorly and marketing on the console was not great which ultimately led to Mattel selling it off and its eventual demise.  

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was a major disappointment because the phone itself receive rave reviews and was ideal for the games we loves to play, and for players across the globe to get their gaming fix on the go too. Soon after the phone was launched, there were reports of it catching fire. The fires were caused by the batteries in the device and Samsung had to issue a recall.

Replacement phones also caught fire which ultimately led to the death of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. At this time Samsung issued software updates that disabled any remaining phones and eliminated the ability for them to work as mobile smartphones.

Quick Response or QR Codes

QR codes, which stands for quick response codes, have been seen all over for about the last decade. The resemble barcodes and have the same purpose as them but they have the ability to hold much more information than regular barcodes.

QR codes were originally created to track parts in the motor industry but are now used all over. The problem is that no one really knows what they are or what to use them for which makes them slightly pointless in many regards.

The DIVX Plus Player

DIVX may be seen as one of the worst tech flops because from its inception, it almost had no hope. The whole idea behind DIVX was that it was a way to rent a film for a day or two and once finished the film was discarded of.

Unlike a real life DVD rental, there were no special features but it did need a separate player in order to work. The video rental industry fought against it and DIVX not quite measuring up to that industry which led to it flopping dismally.