2012's Worst Tech Ideas: Flops, Fails & Fiascos

In an exceptional year for tech innovation, not every idea had the brightest bulb. Find out which ones were the absolute worst.

Published

5 months ago

Categories

Technology

Topics

Technology

Companies

Samsung C&T, Apple Inc., Facebook Inc, Google Inc., Twitter Inc., Zynga, Inc.

Transcript

TV AND WEB RESTRICTIONS~*NONE* 2012 was a vintage year for the tech industry, with record-breaking sales for Samsung's S3, crowd-funded start-ups galore, and Obama's election-eve Reddit pitch. (SOUNDBITE) (English) REUTERS TV CORRESPONDENT, JON GORDON, SAYING: "But it wasn't all inspired genius. So here's our list of 2012's..." worst ideas in tech, starting with unlucky number seven: Microsoft's "Non-Windows" Windows tablet. Well, tablets aren't a fad - it's official. Unfortunately it did take Microsoft about two and half years to figure that one out. Their answer? Something that isn't the iPad, but costs just as much. At least it runs windows, right? well, no. It does, kind-of, but it doesn't run your old applications. Even its paid celebrity cheerleaders can't be bothered. Number 6: Shutting down Mega Upload. Now, everybody loves a good police raid, especially when it involves luxury cars, a super-mansion, and a German 6'6" file-sharing tycoon. But the joint Kiwi/Fed action didn't only destroy some innocent users' data. Most of the police work behind it has since been deemed illegal. Worse still, once you actually hear it, it's scientifically impossible to get that mega upload song out of your head. Number 5, paying millions for a doodling app. Step 1: create app. Step 2: go viral. Step 3: sell out for $180 million US dollars. That's a brilliant exit for the makers of Draw something, and a massive write-off for acquirer Zynga. Number 4: Ditching Apple Maps. Well, if you can't beat 'em, delete them. That was the decision from Cupertino when it dropped the bomb, eliminating Google maps from its iPhone and iPad. The response? An online iPocalypse. Reading the Twitter feed was like going through the 5 stages of grief. Number three: The U.N. internet takeover. Hey, I've got an idea for you. Let's take the internet. You know, the ultimate tool of free dissemination and let's give the keys to the governments of Russia, Saudi Arabia and China. Apologies if I'm offending anybody with this, but that's like asking a dingo to babysit your toddler. Luckily this little gem of an idea didn't get too far off the runway before the internet drones of freedom shot it down. Number 2: Samsung's billion dollar legal bill. So you're saying that we need to pay a billion dollars? For making rectangle-shape phones? For a claim like that, Apple should have probably been laughed out of the courtroom. But Samsung's lawyers stuffed this one up. They didn't properly vet the jurist who would became foreman. You know, the guy who later said he wanted to send a message to the Korean firm. Samsung has gone on to sell half a gazillion S3s, so I guess the financial impact won't be too bad, but this is a serious blunder. Number one: Buying Facebook. It was the biggest IPO in internet history, with a peak market cap of 104 billion dollars. Within three months, it was less than half of that, though. So billions of dollars of shareholder money wiped out Long-term damage to the brand. Zuckerberg may have made alright by it. But the scandalous handling of the IPO gets a complete thumbs down. (SOUNDBITE) (English) REUTERS TV CORRESPONDENT, JON GORDON, SAYING: "And that's why for investors, buying Facebook was the worst idea in tech in 2012."