In 2013, there were a lot of twist in the techy ecosystem; we were still able to streamline the technology failure to five, including the BlackBerry Z10, Chromebook, and Facebook Phone.
Last year didn’t end without some really awful technology flops. The Ebola scare and a few other challenges made 2014 really one heck of a year. Fans of Apple were certainly on the fulfillment side after seeing the company making a U-turn with the release of iPhone 6 and 6 plus having a significant increment in screen size.
Also See: 2013 Winners And Losers In Tech
There was also the Sony hack, possibly the worse corporate hack in history and of course, Samsung’s Galaxy S5 failure to ignite a spark and drop the jaw of tech enthusiasts. Microsoft didn’t produce anything of note; the company’s concentration on its unified OS would mean we can see a high-end Lumia smartphone in 2015.
We were tempted to make the list ten, but our tradition is to limit it to five, so we have narrowed-down what we call the biggest tech flops of 2014.
Here is the list.
5. Samsung Smartwatch
Samsung has been very successful with its mobile business. At one time, any smartphone stamped with the Samsung logo had the tendency to sell pretty well. All that has changed, Samsung’s mobile future is falling apart. The result is a 60% drop in Samsung’s profit.
The Korea tech giant launched a set of watches in 2014, but nobody noticed. They were practically dead on arrival.
4. Jelly
Anyone heard of Jelly?
Ouch…
No one has! Well, Jelly was a Q&A app designed by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. The company was dead on arrival. Reports say Biz has re-directed his attention to something else. We don’t know what it is, but if it does makes headlines in 2015, we would be sure to let you know.
3. Sony Pictures Hack
Not a good year for Sony, it PC business is dead, mobile division struggling while it’s suffered a devastating cyber attack, possibly the worse corporate hack in history.
The hack team catered away with a whooping 100 TB of Sony Pictures data – salary numbers, layoff strategies, personal details of laid of staffer, including about 3,800 Social Security numbers were release to the public in the first set of exposed 40 TB of data by the hackers.
“The Interview” which is reported to be the reason for the hack, was released amidst controversies. However, it wasn’t worth it as the film was totally awful.
2. Google Glass
Anything Google touches turn to gold. This wasn’t the case for Google Glass which was hyped like the invasion of Aliens on earth.
Google Glass ought to hit the mainstream in 2014, it was released but no one noticed!
Don’t Miss: SmartEyeglass: Sony’s Answer To Google Glass
Google has admitted failure and is working on Google Glass 2.0, so we will see what happens in 2015.
1. Amazon Fire Phone
This is the big one. This was indeed a disaster, Amazon fire phone failed to appeal to anyone. It was simply an embarrassing attempt for being a smartphone.
The Fire Phone wasn’t just good enough, coupled with the average battery life. No one was going to spend a cent on a device that only tries to force Amazon products down the throat of users.
This forced Amazon to take a $170 million write-down in the third quarter due to poor Fire sales.
However, Bezos isn’t giving up. Amazon will try again with Fire Phone 2.
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One Comment
Sarah
Great roundup as usual, really enjoyed your article. Thanks for sharing your article about these 5 Biggest Tech Flops Of 2014. It’s very helpful and useful. Looking forward for your best article this year.