A review of some of those promising technological advances that were not commercially successful
Do you remember the segway? It was a two-wheeled scooter in which passengers had to lean their body to ride it. An invention that promised to be revolutionary, but that remained in that, in promise. We review some of the gadgets that were the most modern in their time but that failed commercially.
Why did it fail? It was unnecessary
Juicero
It was a juicer with wifi that cost more than 600 euros. It had a system based on the cold press and it was easy to clean, since the fruits and vegetables came in packages that the machine pressed to extract the juice from the interior with a pressure of 7,000 kilos. It was about bringing the coffee capsule model to fruits and vegetables, but it didn’t work. They lowered the price to 350 euros, but not for that. The business finally plummeted when the Bloomberg company published a video demonstrating that squeezing packages by hand was faster than using Juicero.
Why did it fail? Price and bad control
Segway
Electric scooters invade the streets today and one of their predecessors was the segway. In 1999, what promised to be a revolutionary way of moving was introduced: a scooter with parallel wheels and a T-shaped handlebar with electric battery that moved in the direction in which its passenger leaned thanks to internal gyroscopes. Sales forecasts were very high, 50,000 vehicles the first year, but they stayed at 6,000. They played against its high price (between 3,500 and 4,350 euros), which weighed a lot and that it was not easy to drive. It maintains a residual presence in tourist groups, shopping centers, security companies and in some US police departments.
Why did it fail? High price and design flaws
Power Mac G4 Cube
Apple released in 2000 a 20-centimeter-edge cubic computer inserted in a methacrylate casing with G4 processors, 64 MB expandable memory, 16 MB ATI Ragez 128 Pro card, 20 GB hard drive and excellent connectivity. But the design, elegant and minimalist, prevailed over functionality and it did not have a fan installed, but was cooled by convection, easily overheated and was turned off by the heat. Also, it was difficult to upgrade the internal components due to their size and it didn’t help that it cost more than 1,500 euros, not including the monitor.
Why did it fail? Applied insufficient technology
Nokia’s N-Gage
In 2007 Apple introduced the iPhone and revolutionized the world of communications and entertainment, but Nokia – a leader in mobile telephony at the beginning of the century – had already detected almost five years before that it was a good idea to create a device that would unite mobile phones and entertainment , only that he did not know how to consolidate it in a commercial way. N-Gage was, at the same time, a telephone and a portable game console, but it ended up not being comfortable for either task. As a phone it was big and heavy and as a console it was cumbersome to switch games and it was not ergonomic at all.
Why did it fail? Unprepared technology
Virtual Boy by Nintendo
Virtual Boy was a console that Nintendo launched in 1995 to play in 3D when this technology was in its infancy. The Virtual Boy games had only two colors, four shades of red and black, and had to be played by approaching the viewer, which was located on a base, above the table, thus being used in an awkward position. Some people reported nausea and eye fatigue after playing for a long time.
Why did it fail? Arrived late to market and had marketing and technology failures
Microsoft’s Zune
When Microsoft decided to move into digital MP3 music playback in 2006, the market was dominated by Apple’s iPod. Even so, Bill Gates’ company gambled with everything with Windows Media Player software and achieved an interesting catalog. Three months later Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, which inaugurated a new way of listening to music through iTunes. Microsoft decided to limit the sale of the Zune to the United States and released four generations of the device in the following years without great success. Another image problem appeared on December 31, 2008, a leap year, since the devices counted that every year had 365 days and, having that year 366, they were blocked.
Reason for failure: Lack of content support
HD-DVD, from Toshiba
At the beginning of the 21st century, the latest in audiovisual technology was the high definition of images on screens and DVDs were giving way to a new format with greater capacity that allowed more resolution in videos in which the Blu-ray Disc Association ( consisting of Sony and Phillips) and Toshiba tried to dominate with Blu-ray and HD-DVD, respectively. These new discs used blue laser diodes, with a higher recording density than the red lasers found in DVDs. Blu-ray was released in 2006 and Toshiba and NEC released HD-DVD. HD-DVD players were cheaper, but Blu-ray offered more storage space and more protection against piracy. Video games played their part in deciding the market in favor of Blu-ray, and Sony was also able to attract cinemas to publish movies in its format, which dragged the device manufacturers away. In 2008 Toshiba first and Microsoft later announced that they stopped supporting HD-DVD.
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