Failed bets, absurd products, millionaire investments overboard. Technology doesn’t always dazzle. This is confirmed by this gallery with the loudest high-tech fiascoes of recent decades.

laserdisc

It dates back to 1963, with the development of optical video recording technology, until Phillips and MCA developed a transparent disc with a diameter of 30 centimeters similar to a long-play vinyl.

Even though the format outperformed VHS and Betamax on screen, along with allowing films to include director’s commentary, ahead of DVD and Blu-ray, the high price and inability to record hampered its expansion.

In the United States, only 2% of households had the equipment, while in Europe it aroused little interest.  Thus, the voluminous player conquered 10% of Japanese houses.

It disappeared from the US market around 2001.

Betamax

Witnesses to one of the most intense technological wars of the 70s and 80s between Betamax and VHS will remember the advantages of the former: the tapes were smaller, and better in audio and sound. But Sony, which released the format in 1975 – a year before JVC’s VHS – did not license the product as the competition did. The result was a shot in the foot by limiting Betamax’s movie offerings.

If in 1975 they cornered the video recorder market, in 1988 they covered only 10%. That same year, Sony accepted defeat by joining the production of VHS equipment.

GalaxyNote 7

It was considered so dangerous that the US government’s Department of Transportation banned the infamous Galaxy Note 7 from being carried on commercial flights.

But Samsung’s stylish mobile phone – strictly speaking, a phablet, a mixture of tablet and phone – was literally a bomb that exploded unexpectedly, releasing smoke, fire and liquid due to faulty batteries and a rushed assembly process, according to investigations.

The model was discontinued in less than two months, while the company managed to recover more than three million units. Among other losses, Samsung dropped its operating profit by 33% in the last quarter of 2016, as it was attentive to jokes and parodies about the case.

MiniDisc

The company late licensed manufacturing by JVC, Sharp, Pioneer, Yamaha, and Panasonic, as it initially faced competition from Digital Audio Tape (DAT), upon its release in 1992.

Crossing the new millennium, the device with its small discs and the slow process to copy music became anachronistic in the face of digital downloads, portable memories and the irruption of the iPod.

Sony tried to compete against Apple’s flagship product between 2004 and 2006 through the Qualia-017 model, a sophisticated silver device at a stratospheric cost of $1,900.  All good except for one detail: it only allowed to play its own ATRAC3 format, leaving out other more popular formats such as MP3, WAV or WMA.

NeoTune Headphones with Ipad

More than a fiasco, a rarity of the Japanese market. In 2006, RWC released neoTUNE earphones exclusively for use with the iPod nano. At a price of 43 dollars, you could show off a model whose main feature was to insert the player into one of the headphones, like someone inserting a card to turn on the lights in a hotel room.

VirtualBoy

It promised a gaming experience in 3D when, strictly speaking, the games of the Nintendo console baptized as Virtual Boy in July 1995, were in two dimensions trying to create by kicking, a virtual reality effect, through a cumbersome viewer mounted on a flimsy tripod.

The games, dominated by the colors red and black to amortize costs, were annoying and fatiguing to look at after little use. The offer was not for feasting either.

Nintendo would take 15 years to try a new bet in 3D.

HD-dvd

This high-density digital versatile disc made by Toshiba has been competing with Blu-ray since 2005. The fight didn’t last long. On February 19, 2008, the company abandoned the format and the player devices. A month earlier, Warner Bros had announced its support for the Sony-led Blu-ray format, dealing the final blow to HD DVD to the dismay of those who had purchased exclusive players.

Zune

Microsoft’s attempt to take on the iPod was a losing battle from launch in September 2006 until November 2015, when all services associated with the Zune MP3 player ended. Although it had minor successes such as the typography on the screen, there were gross errors such as the unforgettable brown model, giving rise to scatological jokes.

On December 31, 2008, the 30 GB devices stopped working, because the calendar schedule did not take leap year into account. The Zune Pass streaming service was also unsuccessful.

Apple Air Power

It promised to charge an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods via a wireless pad, announced in September 2017.

Although the company never detailed the reasons for the cancellation, it is presumed that the cause was excessive heating of the device.

iLuv i9500

This sound equipment has something of a bather that carries everything imaginable to enjoy the beach and the sea without any practical sense, including a swimsuit, fins for swimming, snorkel, bucket, paddle, deck chair, umbrella and sunscreen. iLuv i9500 appeared in 2009, when CDs were in full retreat at the hands of MP3 players and the entrenchment of the iPod. What did you do? Bring all formats together in one monstrous device with four compact players, USB port, iPod slot and FM radio.

Google Glass

The history of Google Glass is similar to a car that has a hard time starting. Although the return of the product was announced in 2019 after pausing its sale in 2015, the beginnings of this Google augmented reality device were not auspicious.

The central idea of ​​the glasses was to display information without the need to use the hands and command its use by voice. Detractors questioned the wearable from an ethical and legal perspective due to the possibility of recording people without consent, among other scopes.

The original price, of 1,500 dollars, did not help its massification either, except for the rather striking appearance of the glasses.

GoPro Karma

GoPro’s first drone, introduced in October 2016, had a name fitting for its lack of luck. Despite a number of features that made it appealing to GoPro’s sporting target, the product contained a fatal flaw: the motors would collapse and the drone would plummet to the ground.

The company recalled 2,500 units and applied refunds. Although GoPro attempted a re-release, it was discontinued in January 2018.