Monday, February 7, 2011

(S2) Tech -> Fail


Over the past few months of the blog assignment, we've examined the biggest presence on the internet and in the world of operation systems. Your job this week is to find the biggest blunders of the tech world.

1. Find one failed tech idea that really stands out to you. Give a short summary about this product, including when it was made, who made it, and what it aspired to do.


2. What went wrong with the product?


3. What could have been done to make it more successful?

11 comments:

  1. 1. The Apple Newton was Apple's first "tablet." It was a touchscreen device similar to a large Palm Pilot. It was developed in 1987 and produced until its cancellation in 1998. It was supposed to fulfill all the roles that the iPad does today, but its biggest success was coining the term "PDA" (Personal Digital Assistant).

    2. It was expensive, bulky, had a short battery life, and simply wasn't something that a regular consumer could use. The software was buggy and didn't solve the biggest problems that people had.

    3. The technology simply wasn't available yet. It took us 15 more years to develop the technology that could make a successful tablet device - the iPad.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1. The sidewinder freestyle pro was microsofts attempt at trying to make an early game pad with a tilt sensor for the PC. It was developed in 1998 and it aspired to be the next fun digital contoller.

    2. They tried to incorporate too many different styles of controllers into one tiny device. Including some different aspects like a joystick, gamepad, miny wheel, USB spot, so they decided to start a whole line of controllers each specialized in something above.

    3. It was a great idea, it just wasn't thought out properly so they had to wait until approx. 2007 to launch the whole line of merchendise.
    Another ironic idea about it was that even then they still had necessary improvements. For example they made the 3D pro joystick but then came out with the better precision joystick. Again, more technology needed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 1) The Kin, developed by Microsoft was a cousin phone to the Microsoft Windows phone. The phone operated with cloud based information storing everything the phone did on a server. It was supposed to be a revolution for smart phone memory access.

    2) With the production of other Microsoft smart phones, focus for producing and marketing the phone was split. After a few advertising dilemmas it was put on the market but due to poor sales the Kin was pulled from the market.

    3) If Microsoft had perfected the phone's operating system and had a better marketing scheme the phone's launch would have been much more successful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 1. One fail that stands out is Microsoft BOB. It was an interface designed to run with windows 3.1. The concept was to create an overly simplistic OS to raise user friendliness. .

    2. What made BOB so bad was the fact that it was way too simple. The OS was designed with cartoon like features and it made people feel extremely stupid.

    3. Microsoft probably could not have made it any better. The concept was fantastic but people weren't ready for it...

    ReplyDelete
  5. 1. I chose the IBM PCjr. IT was designed to be a cheap computer that could be distributed to schools, and act kind of like macs do now. It was distributed in 1984, and discontinued in 1987.

    2. The PCjr had no hard drive, and instead had to use a cartridge with programs to get them to run, which sounds KIND OF LIKE the Google Chromes. It also had a wireless keyboard, but the buttons were too big and bulky.

    3. If it had been given a hard drive, it would have been much better.

    ReplyDelete
  6. 1. HD DVD it was the next format for home movies. It was designed to be in HD as that was the next step in TV technology. It launched in 2006. HD DVD was primarily funded and marketed by Toshiba.

    2. There are a number of reasons that the HD-DVD format lost out to Blu-ray, which was championed by Sony. The most commonly cited explanation is that Sony did a better job convincing major film studios to release high definition editions of movies for Blu-ray. The final blow to HD DVD was probably when Wal-Mart decided to stop offering the format in favor of Blu-ray.

    3. Toshiba should of convinced the major studios to release more movies for it, and could have marketed better.

    ReplyDelete
  7. 1. A CR-48.....
    -----------------------
    1) The Operating system. Mac OS 9 was a fail.. sure its better now with Snow, but back then the computers were very vulnerable to any kind of hacker or anybody that knew how to mess with them. you would be able to drag the HD to the trash and the screen would go black xD.

    2) The biggest problem then was that they also used internet explorer, why would they do that? The HDD to the trash is bad.

    3) Now we have Lynix and Windows.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 1) the Microsoft's "kin" phone: Microsoft’s “Kin” phones (Kin one and Kin two) are withdrawn from the market after just two months. The phones were designed for the younger market and those who are heavy users of social networking sites. Despite the the price being cut in half, lacklustre sales are reported.

    2)Cause of the failure are speculative, but clearly tough competition from Apple’s iPhone, RIM’s Blackberry and Android based phones already on the market made a new entry more difficult. Some sources also cite a lack of marketing as many target users had never heard of the phone at the time of cancellation

    3)advertisement. its simple, if no one knows that your product is out there then no one will buy it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Google Chrome Net Book = fail,

    1. The Google net book, was a fail because the creators did not think the product through. It is a net book that only ha internet, it is like having an oven that only tells you the time...

    2. I am not sure if this is an advertisement for Google chrome or if they were really trying something, there some good things about it, like the mat finish, and the color, black is always cool.

    3. I am surprised something in this world is worse then a Mac... BE MORE LIKE PC...

    ReplyDelete
  10. 1) I think the the Windows Vista was a fail. This OS was released in January of 2007. Microsoft said that this was going to be the fastest OS ever for gaming and internet wise. This effect a lot of the older PCs bkuz it could not hold its weight making is very slow.

    2) It effected all the older computers also made them very slow and evening crashing some computers at times.

    3) Well Microsoft fix there fail by replacing it with Windows Vista 7.

    ReplyDelete
  11. 1. Original iPhone. Made by Apple Inc. It was SO SLOW and dropped like half the calls it made. And it didn't have picture messaging or anything at all.

    2. It sucked ALOT.

    3. Nothing. It was the pilot iPhone and it was improved with the later models, just like everything else

    ReplyDelete

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