Biggest Tech Flops of 2007

Microsoft Live services. Microsoft will push their live services into a consumer market that isn't ready for the shift to fully online hosted apps. The average Joe working in cubicle B just wants to open excel and work on their formulas on their laptop. They then want to be able to hop on a plane and not be SOL when they don't have an Internet connection.

Another market that will fail is pay as you go operating systems. I don't see users wanting to pay for a core piece of software in multiple chunks as they use it. They want to use the Granny's buffet of operating systems, pay one flat fee, forget you paid it and eat all the ham and swirl ice cream cones possible.

I don't know that it will be complete flop, but I don't think the iphone will sell like it is expected. The main reason is the shear cost. Not only the cost of buying the phone, but the large cost of service for it as well. You are approx $3000 over the run of your 2 year contract. There are also a lot of people like myself, that could not be paid to go to cingular, they had my business once, but never again. There will be the die hard mac crowd and the must have everything now crowd that will buy them, but average people will probably pass it up.

Hasbro's forthcoming release of a 99% sinister-free Lite-Brite® will utterly fail to find a market. "Better safe than sorry," says a terrified populace quietly soiling it's undergarments from an undisclosed broom closet.

Hate to be a Microsoft basher, but Vista. This year, for sure, long run, maybe not.

HDDVD.

The I-Phone.

Hot air meets Apple's creative genius meets Apple fatigue meets Cingular hating meets massive flop.

Speaking from the European point of view I'm going all out in saying the Playstation 3 will be the biggest flop of all. Over here everyone loves the Playstation brand and it dominates everything. Nintendo haven't stood a chance since the SNES and the Xbox only broke online ground (yet didn't seem to pull the PC faithful away). Whilst many over here are loving the Nintendo Wii I still see little it can offer apart from swinging swords, fishing poles, controlling tilting action and shooting before people buy a similar game and think to themselves that they've seen it all before.

The Xbox 360 has gained too much ground for the PS3 to take it, and with the price hike for the UK I can't see anyone forking out in excess of $700 for a console. It's all to win for the other two, but Sony are effectively out.

Newsvine! API or boycott!

VISTA - DRM'ed, Bloated hardware requirements, Closed source.

Vista is already a pretty big flop, given that TIME Magazine called it "an embarrassment for American innovation" — I think that in the coming months, with more people using it, it'll just become more and more apparent that Vista is the biggest flop of the year.

Both HD DVD and Blu-Ray will officially flop.

The future is no longer in discs, but in On-Demand and near instantaneous downloads, while the plain old DVD, especially with an upconverting player, is just fine for present use.

If you look back in history it was porn that settled the Betamax vs. VHS war. In present times porn has already chosen its methods and they are neither HD DVD nor Blu-Ray, but the Internet.

So instead of buying those high definition discs, invest in a Netflix or iTMS account or your local cable company's On Demand service. IP based high def programming is the future.

Windows Vista. Has to be because in all circumstances Mac OS X outperforms Vista by a million miles. Apple have always been ahead of everyone, and they're not going to stop soon. Vista also might not work because it was probably a last attempt thing because Bill Gates is leaving. It may look sleek and sexy, but does it work? No, it's just Windows XP made to look good. It has copied the style that Apple use on their computers. And it's still for businesses. Not much has changed, and I don't think it will be able to handle new generation technology, and Web 3.0. Apple, on the other hand, also have the upper hand, because they know what people want, unlike Microsoft who assume what people want out of a computer. And they left it too long between releasing XP and Vista. People have become too accustomed to it.

I'd count the Playstation 3 (despite a US release in 2006, its worldwide one is 2007). There are yet to be any console-selling titles, the exclusive games for it are nothing stellar, and there's nothing on the horizon that will help to sell the system as there's been for the 360 or the Wii. The price range is much too high compared to the older PS2 to be considered a casual all-in-one media center compared to what you can do with the Xbox 360, and has too many features already duplicated by existing equipment that a gadget-happy person likely already has. The number of patches since release is also worrisome, with some now-fixed bugs (namely the PS1/PS2 display issue and problems with certain high-definition TVs) seem like no-brainers that should have been fixed out of the box. Not helping any of this is Sony's aragence in selling the brand.

1st Place: Microsoft Zune and any interface software or third party accessories that smell like it. Hey Microsoft, maybe if you repackage it and market it the right way, you can reinvent the WHEEL and gain some marketshare there too. You would think that of all businesses on EARTH, Microsoft would understand the concept of a SATURATED market.

2nd Place: "Entourage" email program on Mac for Windows (again). It will flop and suck continuously until the illusion of Mac-Friendly Microsoft Office applications is shed and the idiots just bundle Outlook, since that is ALL people really want. Word, Powerpoint, Excel...and...ENTOURAGE; why? If someone could let Microsoft know it's a horrible idea for me I would appreciate it; I won't buy the MacBook Pro I've been wanting since 8th grade until they figure it out.

Duke Nukem Forever.

Wait... this year?

iPhone - great idea, too expensive, too restricted, too little, too late.

Vista will flop in that the adoption rate won't be as fast as hoped for. As far as the Mac vs. PC market share argument goes, it's not really relevant being that Apple is still making plenty of money.

One or both of the high-def formats will fail, and some of the online movie distribution services might go under too.

Originally I had thought the iPhone would reach the 10 million units Apple hopes to sell, but now I'm not to sure. I don't know that it will "flop" Zune-style, but I don't think it will hit it's mark.

Playstation 3. Without a doubt. Sony is already behind the game and behind in sales at this point and with Microsoft and Nintendo making new 3rd party development friends, the PS3 can no long rely on a massive library of exclusive games. On top of that PS2 has been outselling PS3. Ouch.

A flop? The Zune. Wait, it already is.

Wal-Mart's Online Video Download Service.

(Announced today.)

They've played too safe for fear of upsetting the MPAA and also because they don't want to upset their physical DVD sales cash cow.

Top it off with limited compatibility, a horrible interface and too-restrictive DRM.

They managed to get the studios (far more than Apple has managed) -- they won't manage to sell very many videos.

Dead in the water on the day it's released.

Chicago Bears 2007 SuperBowl Champions T-Shirts

Biggest flop? I'd definately have to say the iPhone.

Sure, its a shiny new piece of technology and most of the people who will buy it are Mac and/or iPod enthusiasts. However, with its hefty price tag it will significantly lower its marketability, the lack of physical buttons will be too odd a transition from other typical and popular multifunction cell phones and the shiny, glass-like finish on the whole phone will make it prone to scratches and damage, much like the first generation of iPod Nanos faced.

Not to mention Apple makes it very difficult for a user to upgrade their products, so the average Joe would rather have expandable, removable memory rather than be stuck in a situation where they need to cough up another $600 for a phone with higher storage capacity.

If the apple iphone does not meet the HUGE expectations it could be a flop.

Microsoft Zune. It's built like a brick and brings nothing new to the table other than the silly "social" WiFi that's so DRM restricted it wouldn't be of much use even if you COULD find another Zune user to share with. (The simple fact that tech writers couldn't find a single Zune user to share with at CES speaks volumes.)

On a side note: several people have mentioned the iPhone's HUGE expectations. Sorry, but that's incorrect. Apple has stated they'd like the iPhone to gain an eventual 1% market share. Any HUGE expecations have come from bloggers who don't know any better.

The biggest flop will be the naysayers' prediction about Windows Vista being a flop.

Like it or not, Vista has 80+% of the market share. Mac OS has a puny 4-5%. 6 months from now, Fry's will be selling Vista desktops for under $400 and by Thanksgiving weekend (Black Friday sales) we will see Vista desktops under $250. Compare that to the $1000+ that you have to shell out for an Apple laptop and there is no competition. Fact is that Vista ain't that bad a product. When it comes to Microsoft, people think viscerally instead of logically. Most common people aren't worried about looking cool sporting a MacBook. They just want what is cheapest and what will work. Vista will do both.