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Severed Hand of Skywalker · Jul 8, 2005, 01:17 PM

In terms of sales, customer acceptance or money lost.

I vote for the first nGage, Nintendo VirtualBoy, Divx Dvd players, iomega Click drives, Windows ME, orb drives and iridium Satellite phones.

I think in dollars nothing beats iridium.

JoshuaZ · Jul 8, 2005, 01:19 PM

I'd say Nintendo Virtual Boy was a great product. If you enjoyed a lot of red lines and a splitting headache after using it.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Jul 8, 2005, 01:21 PM

Originally Posted by JoshuaZ

I'd say Nintendo Virtual Boy was a great product. If you enjoyed a lot of red lines and a splitting headache after using it.

I still have mine. It gave me back-pains.

Captain Obvious · Jul 8, 2005, 01:25 PM

Any eAppliance

mitchell_pgh · Jul 8, 2005, 01:30 PM

OS/2 Warp, Atari Jaguar, The :CueCat,

mitchell_pgh · Jul 8, 2005, 01:31 PM

suvsr4terrorists · Jul 8, 2005, 01:33 PM

Segway. By far.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Jul 8, 2005, 01:34 PM

Microsoft Bob and the network computer.

Oh and one I can't believe I forgot COPLAND.

exca1ibur · Jul 8, 2005, 01:39 PM

Pippen, Sega Saturn, Sherlock

Millennium · Jul 8, 2005, 01:40 PM

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker

Microsoft Bob and the network computer.

Oh and one I can't believe I forgot COPLAND.

Does Copland actually count, given that it was never released?

exca1ibur · Jul 8, 2005, 01:42 PM

I would count Copland as a tech stepping stone. Being a lot of features were migrated to Rhapsody, which became OSX.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Jul 8, 2005, 01:44 PM

Originally Posted by Millennium

Does Copland actually count, given that it was never released?

Ya it is a gray area, Apple did dump a TON of money on it and hype up the public for it.

As far as I know next to nothing from it made its way into Rhapsody.

Albert Pujols · Jul 8, 2005, 01:45 PM

NeoGeo Pocket, in the US

Eug Wanker · Jul 8, 2005, 01:46 PM

Cube? No, Lisa.

xi_hyperon · Jul 8, 2005, 01:49 PM

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

No, Lisa.

Yep, didn't Apple bury almost 3,000 of them in a landfill when they took it off the market?

I'd say the Apple III was even more of a stinker than the Lisa though. I think around 40% of the ones they did sell were DOA.

iREZ · Jul 8, 2005, 01:52 PM

every ipod killer mentioned here and the atari jaguar

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Jul 8, 2005, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

Cube? No, Lisa.

Actually I think it did so so, the Apple III was the real bomb.

JoshuaZ · Jul 8, 2005, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by xi_hyperon

Yep, didn't Apple bury almost 3,000 of them in a landfill when they took it off the market?

I'd say the Apple III was even more of a stinker than the Lisa though. I think around 40% of the ones they did sell were DOA.

Steve insisted that there not be a fan in the Apple IIIs, and thus the boards got to hot and eventually the chips worked themselves out of their sockets. Tech support actually told people to lift the back of their computers up about an inch and then let go, hoping to reset the chips.

Apple didn't immediately ditch the Lisa either. They renamed it a Mac XL and gave it emulation software that let it run Mac OS stuff. After a while, and even when it was holding its own against the mac, Apple killed production on the Lisa and sold their extra inventory over to some repair companies on consignment. Eventually apple did buy back the extra Lisas and ditch them in a dump for a tax write off.

This information brought to you by me reading 'The Mac Bathroom Reader.'

xi_hyperon · Jul 8, 2005, 02:08 PM

Originally Posted by JoshuaZ

Steve insisted that there not be a fan in the Apple IIIs, and thus the boards got to hot and eventually the chips worked themselves out of their sockets. Tech support actually told people to lift the back of their computers up about an inch and then let go, hoping to reset the chips.

Apple didn't immediately ditch the Lisa either. They renamed it a Mac XL and gave it emulation software that let it run Mac OS stuff. After a while, and even when it was holding its own against the mac, Apple killed production on the Lisa and sold their extra inventory over to some repair companies on consignment. Eventually apple did buy back the extra Lisas and ditch them in a dump for a tax write off.

This information brought to you by me reading 'The Mac Bathroom Reader.'

Yeah, read all that in Apple Confidential awhile back. Forgot about the rebadging of Lisa as Mac XL. Seems as though some of Steve's ideas and his rashness to implement them caused a few problems back then.

ort888 · Jul 8, 2005, 02:15 PM

The 3DO.

Those Superdisc things designed to compete with Zip disks.

cjrivera · Jul 8, 2005, 02:21 PM

Apple Pippin

C.J. Moof · Jul 8, 2005, 02:22 PM

Ricochet wireless.

brapper · Jul 8, 2005, 02:27 PM

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker

Divx Dvd players.

Aren't these relatively new? Futureshop sell one for like $80 that I'm for sure picking up before i go back to school, and I know of two other people what are going to get one.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Jul 8, 2005, 02:30 PM

Originally Posted by brapper

Aren't these relatively new? Futureshop sell one for like $80 that I'm for sure picking up before i go back to school, and I know of two other people what are going to get one.

No you are thinking of the codec that took the same name.

Divx drives were DVD players that let you watch the movie as many times as you wanted within 48 hours, if you wanted to watch it again after that the DVD player had to call home and they billed you $3 to watch the movie. Retarded.

Another bomb were those dvd's that rotted 48 hours after you opened the box. They thought it would be better then having to return the DVD.

suvsr4terrorists · Jul 8, 2005, 02:42 PM

Originally Posted by ort888

The 3DO.

No way. It was a good system. I bought one after working all summer for one when I was like 12 or 13. It ruled. Need for Speed was INCREDIBLE. Road Rash was awesome, Jurassic Park, ... so many cool games for that system. I should dust it off, I still have it.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Jul 8, 2005, 02:43 PM

Pontiac Aztec?

xi_hyperon · Jul 8, 2005, 02:43 PM

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker

Another bomb were those dvd's that rotted 48 hours after you opened the box. They thought it would be better then having to return the DVD.

Wasn't that one of Disney's ingenious ideas? Did they actually go to market with it? I remember reading about it a year or two ago and thinking that's gotta be one of the most stupid and wasteful ideas I've ever heard of.

ghporter · Jul 8, 2005, 02:47 PM

Iridium phones aren't the bomb a lot of people think, they were just marketed by people who didn't do their market research. The only real customer with both the need for the service and the money to pay for it was the U.S. Department of Defense, which now has almost exclusive use of Iridium.

I have to agree about the Aztec, though. But somehow I still see a bunch of them. And Pontiac (or some other GM segment) has apparently "updated" the Aztec recently, releasing a new vehicle that looks like its grandparents were an Aztec and something else...I haven't seen what the thing is called yet, but the "family resemblence" is striking. Yuck.

suvsr4terrorists · Jul 8, 2005, 02:49 PM

I don't mind the aztec. It's ugly, yes...but that isn't hte point. They wanted more function than form, and with that said, it's a very versatile vehicle with some rather neat features.

xi_hyperon · Jul 8, 2005, 02:55 PM

Originally Posted by suvsr4terrorists

I don't mind the aztec. It's ugly, yes...but that isn't hte point. They wanted more function than form, and with that said, it's a very versatile vehicle with some rather neat features.

Could be, but I'm always amazed when I see one anyway. Even the paint on them looks shoddy, kind of dull like it's been painted at Maaco or something. Haven't seen the interior though.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Jul 8, 2005, 02:55 PM

Originally Posted by ghporter

Iridium phones aren't the bomb a lot of people think, they were just marketed by people who didn't do their market research. The only real customer with both the need for the service and the money to pay for it was the U.S. Department of Defense, which now has almost exclusive use of Iridium.

Really? I remember at one point they were just going to let something like 70 satellites fall to the earth because nobody wanted to use them. It ended up costing motorola billions of dollars.

The phones were also giant bricks, didn't work indoors, needed line of sight and so so when moving. Even now they have horrible battery life.

"The system that cost Motorola more than $5 billion to build ultimately sold for $25 million, or about half a penny for every dollar it originally cost."

http://www.forbes.com/2001/11/30/1130tentech.html

SVass · Jul 8, 2005, 03:02 PM

I vote for the IBM PC Junior.
sam

ghporter · Jul 8, 2005, 03:04 PM

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker

Really? I remember at one point they were just going to let something like 70 satellites fall to the earth because nobody wanted to use them. It ended up costing motorola billions of dollars.

The phones were also giant bricks, didn't work indoors, needed line of sight and so so when moving. Even now they have horrible battery life.

"The system that cost Motorola more than $5 billion to build ultimately sold for $25 million, or about half a penny for every dollar it originally cost."

http://www.forbes.com/2001/11/30/1130tentech.html

I think DoD actually bought into Iridium and is paying for satellite operations to make the system available for their use. The phones are certainly not small or pretty, and they do drink electricity pretty liberally, but they do perform better than most other satellite phones. And being a separate and independent system, they're more secure than other sat-phones too.

Superchicken · Jul 8, 2005, 03:06 PM

Netscape 6

Zimphire · Jul 8, 2005, 03:12 PM

The Abdominizer

I bet whoever invented that feels like a moron.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Jul 8, 2005, 03:13 PM

Originally Posted by Superchicken

Netscape 6

Ouch, i forgot about that one, you're right.

cjrivera · Jul 8, 2005, 03:30 PM

Originally Posted by xi_hyperon

Wasn't that one of Disney's ingenious ideas? Did they actually go to market with it? I remember reading about it a year or two ago and thinking that's gotta be one of the most stupid and wasteful ideas I've ever heard of.

Not sure about Disney, but I'm pretty sure Ciruit City was one of the big sleazebags behind this.

Wiskedjak · Jul 8, 2005, 03:30 PM

Originally Posted by ghporter

I think DoD actually bought into Iridium and is paying for satellite operations to make the system available for their use. The phones are certainly not small or pretty, and they do drink electricity pretty liberally, but they do perform better than most other satellite phones. And being a separate and independent system, they're more secure than other sat-phones too.

Didn't M$ buy some of the iridium satellites?

JHromadka · Jul 8, 2005, 03:31 PM

Zimphire · Jul 8, 2005, 03:37 PM

Wiskedjak · Jul 8, 2005, 03:39 PM

Originally Posted by Zimphire

nooooooooo! I had successfully blocked that from my memory!

Zimphire · Jul 8, 2005, 03:41 PM

I thought it was lamer than AOL.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Jul 8, 2005, 04:02 PM

Beta tapes, Laserdisc, 8 track.

mitchell_pgh · Jul 8, 2005, 04:10 PM

mitchell_pgh · Jul 8, 2005, 04:11 PM

OK, technically not a tech bomb... but it was a bomb.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Jul 8, 2005, 04:11 PM

Even though it was awesome:

And as much as we hate to admit it:

suvsr4terrorists · Jul 8, 2005, 04:30 PM

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker

Beta tapes, Laserdisc, 8 track.

I don't get it. So basically any technology that isn't the latest greatest is a failure? 8 tracks were great, and had some advantages over cassettes. Cassettes then replaced them. But CDs replaced them... so should I add cassettes to your list? And maybe portable CD players? Since iPods are so much better, right?

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Jul 8, 2005, 04:36 PM

Originally Posted by suvsr4terrorists

I don't get it. So basically any technology that isn't the latest greatest is a failure? 8 tracks were great, and had some advantages over cassettes. Cassettes then replaced them. But CDs replaced them... so should I add cassettes to your list? And maybe portable CD players? Since iPods are so much better, right?

Nope, 8 tracks were shitty the second the came out and didn't last long. Laserdiscs were expensive as were the players, they didn't sell well. Cassettes were shitty but sold like hotcakes.

Beta was good but expensive and short recored times, didn't sell well next to VHS and lost.

See the diff?

Zimphire · Jul 8, 2005, 04:51 PM

Tapes were actually pretty crappy too.
Wore out too soon, weren't too durable, etc.

Actually CDs aren't that great either.

they could make a CD that didn't get scratched.

suvsr4terrorists · Jul 8, 2005, 04:51 PM

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker

Nope, 8 tracks were shitty the second the came out and didn't last long. Laserdiscs were expensive as were the players, they didn't sell well. Cassettes were shitty but sold like hotcakes.

Beta was good but expensive and short recored times, didn't sell well next to VHS and lost.

See the diff?

Not really. I still have a bunch of 8 tracks from my musclecar days, and they all still play fine, and sound good. The ability to switch between 4 tracks is great.

I have some creedence, hendrix, beatles, simon and garfunkel, JBs, Neil Young, all sorts of stuff. I like them better than my tapes. Laserdiscs were great before DVDs came out.