The New Year provides a ton of promise with new technologies. If 2010 was the year of the tablet like the iPad then 2011 might be the year of new smarthphones or another innovation that has yet to hit the market. For the potential successes that consumers are looking forward to enjoy there are certain to be an equal number of tremendous failures.
The past decade saw many technologies and companies fall flat on their faces. Perhaps no company suffered worse press than Microsoft with the issue of Windows Vista. Despite spending five years in development the operating system proved to be a clunky flop that infuriated consumers and had Microsoft programmers scrambling for solutions. Perhaps no rollout other than New Coke caused consumes to clamor for a return to the previous offering. The Vista was met with petitions begging Microsoft to return to the Windows XP operating system. Vista’s failures extended the life of XP well past its expected expiration date.
Google and failure do not seem to go together. The example of the Google Wave showed that not even one of he most innovative companies in the world are immune to getting egg on its face. The Wave proved far too complex for regular consumers. And the potential of the product was not enough for it to overcome the unfinished portions of the product. The next generation communication and email killer died rather that thrived.
Know anyone with a Microsoft Zune? Probably not as the clunky supposed competition for the iPod claims only about 1 percent of the U.S. MP3 player market. When the product debuted in 2006 reviewers complained about the same software glitches that plagued Windows Vista. The Microsoft online media store allow proved to be an overly complex failure. While Microsoft still sells the Zune, it has yet to achieve must of a foothold in the marketplace.
Even the most powerful companies have been prone to technology offering disasters.