Throughout history there have been thousands of inventions that have rarely gone beyond the sketch or, at most, the prototype (in many cases luckily for humanity). But reaching the market is by no means a reason for success. Hundreds are the great projects backed by very powerful brands that after a powerful landing end in the most absolute of miseries. Some, like MySpace, starved to death in agony. Others like Skiff disappeared from the face of the Earth. Or others like Google Glass crashed monstrously. Here we compile ten inventions that promised to revolutionize the world of technology and today they are pasture.
MySpace
In less than a decade, social networks have done a lot. Being born, growing up, succeeding, sneaking into the lives of all generations… And in the worst case, collapsing from the top. That is the case of what we could name as the first great social network in history . The first great convergence space for musicians and artists where they shared their art with other users. Unfortunately for him, the emergence of new companies in the sector ended his career . Today it survives as a hybrid between search engine and music container. One more corpse in Facebook's closet ...
Gafas Google
Google is such a monstrously large company that thousands of projects are stored in its annual project portfolio. Hundreds of them have the necessary financing to, in the best of cases, come to fruition. One of those projects that promised the most and that has finally exploded like the Hindenburg was Google glasses. A futuristic invention that promised to be THE virtual assistant of the future. Its absolutely exorbitant price and the strange relationship between Google and privacy rights caused the project to deflate to become part of the great blufs in the history of technology.
Virtual boy
Much. Long before virtual reality glasses became a reality, Nintendo already opted for this technology back in 1995. In reality, Virtual Boy was a screen placed a few inches from the eyes managed by a remote control that connected through a cable. The fall of the product was resounding, especially because a year later the PlayStation, a game console much richer in graphics and gameplay, would reach the market. Who came to play with it even says that dizziness occurred within five minutes of being online.
Nokia N-Gage
Before completely disappearing from the face of the earth as a trademark and plunging Finland into an economic crisis, Nokia, at its peak as a telecommunications company, launched the N-Gage. A hybrid between phone and game console that was not entirely thought of. Especially when being used as a telephone, since the earphone and microphone were located together, so the device had to be placed “on its side” . Also, the quality of the games was far from that of other portable devices of the time. Even so, the Scandinavian brand would release the Nokia N-Gage QD Silver two years later, the first and only evolution of the phone.
Dreamcast
Probably the game console with the greatest failure in its investment-results ratio. Sega's move to compete with the Nintendo 64 and Sony's PlayStation was in a painful third position after several years without finding the right key to face the other two. Especially when Sony advanced the launch of the PlayStation 2. The console was left between the waters of two generations which made it fail more due to a lack of planning than a lack of quality as an instrument. A cut in the jugular of Sega that dragged for years and that has ended with the mythical Japanese video game company in a corner of the market.
Beta
In the eternal fight of players, Beta lost against VHS as years later Laser Disc would against DVD or HD-DVD against Blue-Ray. Today it is a myth of the pop culture of the eighties and its ancient players are used today as decorative elements in many homes . A myth in its time and a failure for all those who spent a few pesetas in their day for a reproduction system that finally came to nothing.
Segway
Another one of those inventions that seemed like they were going to change the world and finally ran into reality. The first because not everyone has a minimum of a thousand something euros to replace the basic use of their legs for that of a pot. The second because certain local laws placed the Segway in a pseudo legal limbo by which they could not circulate on the sidewalk (as it was a motorized vehicle) or on the roads as it was a non-approved vehicle. Over time, it has gained a small market niche in the world of tourism, serving as a means of transport for lazy travelers.
Microsoft Bob
Considering the evolution of the Internet Explorer browser, qualifying Microsoft Bob as the biggest commercial fiasco in the history of the American company is very hard. But this software released by Microsoft back in 1995 was one of the first commercial blows of the company then led by Bill Gates. If we see the play from another perspective, it was his then girlfriend, Melinda French, who was in charge of not only conceiving the project and Bob's concept, but developing it in its entirety. Designed for the most novice users to integrate quickly and easily into the operating system, it simulated being a “furnished” house in which the user could easily navigate (for example, the typewriter was the word processor).
Zune
We continue with the disastrous failures of Microsoft. If the iPod was a runaway success from a series of quirks that the end user accepted, the Zune was the complete opposite . The "copy" of iPod that included a strange and peculiar music subscription service, pioneering conceptually, but still far from what today are streaming services such as Spotify or Apple Music. It was discontinued more than five years ago after nearly a decade without gaining a foothold in the market.
Skiff Reader
One of the inventions that was presented by world fairs as the future of technology and that has disappeared from the face of the Earth. The gossips on various Internet forums claim that the telecommunications mogul Rupert Murdoch bought the entire technology and stored it forever in a drawer in his office. Skiff was born a few years ago as the future of reading, a flexible and waterproof e-book that simulated reading like a newspaper. More than five years nothing is known about this technology and why it did not even try to conquer a market in which at that time not even the all-powerful iPad had such a certain future.