2014 was a very interesting year in Tech. Apple Fanboys finally got the big screen they wanted, the field of wearable tech really took off. But it was also a year of some epic fails.
Below is a list of Tech Biggest Flops of 2014.
1. Swing Copters
Ever Heard of Swing Copters?No? Swing Copters was the follow up to the hugely successful and often frustrating game Flappy Bird that went viral. The Game Flappy Bird went so successful that the its developer who was just one guy pulled the game because the popularity of the game overhelmed him. So, when he returned with Swing Copters as a follow up, people were expecting another hit. But it wasn’t to be.
2. Microsoft Kinect 2.0
Microsoft’s first-generation Kinect, released in 2010, proved to be an immensely popular add-on to its Xbox 360 console. But it was limited by its Technology. No matter how great a Kinect-based game was, only a minority of Xbox 360 users (those who owned a Kinect) were ever able to play it.
To ensure the popularity of the second-generation Kinect — Kinect 2.0 — Microsoft chose to bundle the sensor in with the Xbox 360’s successor, the Xbox One.
Unfortunately, this resulted in a more expensive console — at $500, Microsoft’s Xbox One was a full $100 more than the competing Sony’s PS4. And even the more improved Kinect 2.0 was still prone to failure.
Microsoft had initially claimed many times that Kinect 2.0 was central to its vision for the Xbox One but chose to unbundle the accessory back in May. The good news: Xbox One sales have improved, which makes the decision to give up Kinect a success rather than a flop.
3. Blackberry Passport
Blackberry has really not been able to catch up in the market of smartphones. They have tried there hands at everything. This year, Blackberry was so desperate to stand in the market that they launched a rather awkward device, the Blackberry Passport. The device is pretty much impossible much to use with one hand and its simply not worth the trade off to carry a awkward size phone in the pocket. Without a doubt, this is one of the biggest flops of 2014.
4. Apple iCloud Hack
Apple’s executives, especially Tim Cook, have loved to put up slides showing that 99% of mobile malware is found on Android devices and that the Microsoft Windows OS is a full of malwares. And how Apple was far more secure. Right until hackers distributed two hundred “personal” images of celebrities taken straight from iCloud backups and uploaded on the Web for the whole world to see. Regardless of how it happened, it wasn’t good for Apple as they were about to unveil umlimited Photo Storage in iCloud.
5. Amazon’s Fire Phone
Without a Shadow of a doubt, Amazon’s Fire Phone is the biggest Tech Flop of the year and deservingly so. Very Rarely we see a big company launch a Flagship Device with a response that’s was just ‘thud’. It was originally priced at $200(on contract) and eventually amazon dropped the price to $0.01(on contract) but still with no success. As of October 2014, Amazon is sitting on $85 million worth of Unsold Fire Phones. But Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos seems undaunted. He recently said “Stay Tuned” for an evolution of the Phone.
Source:[Tom’s Guide][Google][Cnet]