20 Big Swings And Misses By Major Companies
Companies are always trying to innovate their field because competition is fierce, and anyone who stays still, gets eaten. That drives innovation in many different fields and offers the audience many different options to satisfy the same needs.
However, that only happens when the companies keep their audience in mind when they create new products or take your fan-favorites to the next level. When that doesn’t happen, and companies think they know their audience, some of the worst products in history come alive for a very short period of time.
Food with strange colors seems to be a trend that resurfaces every couple of years, as are digital devices nobody asked for, gaming consoles for people who don’t play video games, or subscription services that don’t offer anything new. Sometimes, failure comes from places nobody could control, but most of the time, it's the person who had to say “no” during a meeting, took the day off, and everything went haywire after that.
Hot Wheels PC
In 1999, kids were surfing the internet and buying CDs to play video games. Mattel thought that toys were a thing of the past because they were losing the battle against computers. So, they decided to create their own Barbie and Hot Wheels-themed PCs.
Nike+ FuelBand
In 2012, Nike launched the FuelBand, a workout tracker you could wear on your wrist. And while the pre-orders sold out in mere minutes, the FuelBand was discontinued as early as 2014. Software support stayed active until 2018, and now a lot of people have cool and heavy bracelets.
SEGA Saturn
After one unpopular but powerful gaming console, SEGA released the Saturn to an even worse audience. Sadly, power was not all gamers were after, and with no distinct games, the SEGA Saturn meant the end of an era for the company.
Xbox One
Microsoft made a similar mistake years later when it revealed the Xbox One to the world. In a presentation with almost no games, presenters promised the future of entertainment, sports, and TV with a gaming console. It’d take years for Xbox to recover.
Zune
Microsoft also thought it could compete against the iPod with its own portable music player, Zune.
Cheeto's Lip Balm
If you love Cheetos, you love their flavor and texture and smell and everything, right? That’s what the company thought, and launched a lip balm with cheese flavor. It takes months to design a product and put it in stores, and they did it because they believed in the idea.
Google Stadia
Google wanted to enter the gaming world with its own gaming console, but couldn’t spend any time developing it. The solution was relying on the cloud, but that meant they were only creating a new platform and almost no games. And with no games, nobody wants a gaming console. It was Google+ all over again.
Apple's Newton
Apple has its fair share of failed products, and the Newton is probably the one people remember the most. In 1993, before “smartphone” was even a word, PDAs were starting to sound like the future, with message apps, calendars, and lots of things you couldn’t fit in your pocket, but almost.
Premier smokeless cigarettes
Cigarette manufacturer RJ Reynolds launched a smokeless cigarette called Premier, but smokers weren’t too excited. While it was advertised as safer than regular cigarettes, there were lots of concerns around its safety due to its “chemical” flavor. What’s more, smokers missed the actual smoke.
DMC DeLorean
You think the DeLorean is a great car because you watched Back to the Future, but when the car was revealed, it was a huge flop. To be fair, people didn’t know it could travel across time. Since the car was launched in 1982, by the time the movie was released in 1985, it was already a failed product with no chance of coming back.
Heinz's EZ Squirt
Sometimes, brands would want to appeal to kids in the weirdest ways possible, like Heinz in the early 2000s. EZ Squirt was colored ketchup in squeeze bottles, a concept that can work for one birthday party, maybe. How long can kids be into purple, blue, and green ketchup anyway?
Toshiba's HD DVD
After the CD and the DVD, manufacturers were thinking about the next digital video format. Toshiba designed the HD DVD and rode its success for a little while. However, the video game and porn industries went for its competitor, the Blu-Ray, leaving thousands of people with unusable hardware.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7
Samsung was on top of its game, competing with Apple, Sony, and Motorola with powerful smartphones in 2016. Sadly, the Galaxy Note S7 had a defective battery that could sometimes catch on fire and explode. The phone was banned from airports and left a serious mark in the manufacturer’s reputation.
Harley-Davidson Perfume
Harley-Davidson is one of the many companies that tried to expand way beyond their markets… and failed miserably. The company tried launching a few different perfumes, as well as wine coolers and aftershave, but discontinued everything after a while.
ESPN Mobile
Before smartphones, you could receive news and updates on your favorite topics through text messages on your phone. ESPN went one step further and launched their own news service with a subscription way before it was the norm. However, you also had to buy their Sanyo phone for $300. This venture lasted less than a year.
TwitterPeek
After launching Peek, a digital device focused on reading and sending emails, the developers went one step ahead and launched TwitterPeek. As you might’ve guessed, it was a digital device focused on reading and sending tweets. While Peek received awards and mentions for innovation, TwitterPeek wasn’t that lucky.
Cosmopolitan Yogurt
Women and yogurt go hand in hand. That’s what the people at Cosmopolitan magazine thought in 1999, and tried to establish themselves as a new yogurt brand. Sadly, this endeavor only lasted 18 months before all yogurts were removed from the shelves.
Kodak's first digital camera
Kodak designed the first digital camera way too early and thought that people were going to use film forever.
Netflix interactive content
It wasn’t enough for Netflix after defeating Blockbuster at their own game, but they also wanted to revolutionize storytelling with interactive stories. A couple of years later, those stories are nowhere to be found due partly to poor reception.
Segway
In the 2010s, you would see Segways everywhere, in different shapes, forms, and colors. But after a couple of years of people facing its dangers and city regulations around the world, they’ve been swiftly replaced by good old scooters in different shapes, forms, and colors.
