24 Big Ideas That Totally Flopped

Nathan Johnson Published 04/27/2021 in wow

Despite high hopes and tons of hype, these things all failed pretty spectacularly.

On the flip side, there are also plenty of businesses and ideas that succeeded in spite of all the haters.

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1.
Google Glass
2.
The Segway. It was supposed to change the way everyone lived. The invention of the century or something like that. A really big deal.
3.
Not entirely relevant, but I liked the trend where everybody wanted the smallest cell phone possible. For 20 years cell phones got smaller and smaller. Often being the main selling point of the phone. Then all of sudden you could watch videos on your phone, and almost overnight the trend reversed to “larger is better”
4.
Airship travel. These were the next, awesome way to travel long distances; in fact the spire on top of the Empire State Building was meant as an anchoring point for airships. The Hindenburg kind of put a damper on it, though
5.
2020
6.
3D TV
7.
Google+ was supposed to be the answer to Facebook
8.
The European Super League.
9.
The Panama Papers
10.
The "Dark Universe" cinematic universe, starting with 2017's THE MUMMY.
11.
This one might be a bit obscure just because I've only ever met one other person familiar with it, but Google's Project Ara modular smartphone was looking like it could've been the end all be all of smartphones. Based off the Phonebloks idea of having a Lego-like hot-swappable module phone, the idea was that you could switch out any components of the phone on the fly. Camera, fingerprint scanner, even different quality screens. Conceptually, it really looked like it could take over the phone market, as it would lead to people not having to buy whole new phones anymore, but rather replacement or upgraded parts to a phone they already liked, thereby reducing costs and increasing utility. You don't want a phone with 5 cameras that inflate the cost unnecessarily? Just buy a one camera module. You want a 1440P Super Amoled screen to replace your 720P regular screen? Buy one and swap it in. However, like many Google projects, it died off for myriad reasons and the longstanding era of $1000 dollar smartphone slabs lived on.
12.
Hoverboards? I remember in a span of 3 months everyone had them and showed them off and then they just disappeared.
13.
Mini disc
14.
McDonald's pizza.
15.
Xbox Kinect
16.
Dip N Dots... Been the "Ice Cream Of The Future" for 40 years now it seems.
17.
Windows phones.
18.
What ever happened to those curved televisions? I remember seeing one on an advert a few years back bit havent seen or heard about them since.
19.
Asbestos Technically it was a hit! Right until it flopped when people figured out the whole 'inhaling rockfibers is not healthy' thing...
20.
At the time video calling with your phone completely flopped because 3G couldn't support it. There was so much advertising about this thing that was meant to be huge but the tech really didn't work yet. But it did blow up later on with 4G, better phones, wifi in more public spaces.
21.
HD DVD Still remember half the movies being blue and the others red.
22.
Elizabeth Holmes.
23.
Google Wave. It was supposed to replace email with a more collaborative approach. Essentially it was like a dynamically-created discussion board you'd share with select people and you could have a more readable discussion than one with a bunch of forwards and CCs and the like. I thought it was a good idea, but it flopped big time and Google got rid of it after a few years.
24.
MoviePass

1.
Google Glass
2.
The Segway. It was supposed to change the way everyone lived. The invention of the century or something like that. A really big deal.
3.
Not entirely relevant, but I liked the trend where everybody wanted the smallest cell phone possible. For 20 years cell phones got smaller and smaller. Often being the main selling point of the phone. Then all of sudden you could watch videos on your phone, and almost overnight the trend reversed to “larger is better”
4.
Airship travel. These were the next, awesome way to travel long distances; in fact the spire on top of the Empire State Building was meant as an anchoring point for airships. The Hindenburg kind of put a damper on it, though
5.
2020
6.
3D TV
7.
Google+ was supposed to be the answer to Facebook
8.
The European Super League.
9.
The Panama Papers
10.
The "Dark Universe" cinematic universe, starting with 2017's THE MUMMY.
11.
This one might be a bit obscure just because I've only ever met one other person familiar with it, but Google's Project Ara modular smartphone was looking like it could've been the end all be all of smartphones. Based off the Phonebloks idea of having a Lego-like hot-swappable module phone, the idea was that you could switch out any components of the phone on the fly. Camera, fingerprint scanner, even different quality screens. Conceptually, it really looked like it could take over the phone market, as it would lead to people not having to buy whole new phones anymore, but rather replacement or upgraded parts to a phone they already liked, thereby reducing costs and increasing utility. You don't want a phone with 5 cameras that inflate the cost unnecessarily? Just buy a one camera module. You want a 1440P Super Amoled screen to replace your 720P regular screen? Buy one and swap it in. However, like many Google projects, it died off for myriad reasons and the longstanding era of $1000 dollar smartphone slabs lived on.
12.
Hoverboards? I remember in a span of 3 months everyone had them and showed them off and then they just disappeared.
13.
Mini disc
14.
McDonald's pizza.
15.
Xbox Kinect
16.
Dip N Dots... Been the "Ice Cream Of The Future" for 40 years now it seems.
17.
Windows phones.
18.
What ever happened to those curved televisions? I remember seeing one on an advert a few years back bit havent seen or heard about them since.
19.
Asbestos Technically it was a hit! Right until it flopped when people figured out the whole 'inhaling rockfibers is not healthy' thing...
20.
At the time video calling with your phone completely flopped because 3G couldn't support it. There was so much advertising about this thing that was meant to be huge but the tech really didn't work yet. But it did blow up later on with 4G, better phones, wifi in more public spaces.
21.
HD DVD Still remember half the movies being blue and the others red.
22.
Elizabeth Holmes.
23.
Google Wave. It was supposed to replace email with a more collaborative approach. Essentially it was like a dynamically-created discussion board you'd share with select people and you could have a more readable discussion than one with a bunch of forwards and CCs and the like. I thought it was a good idea, but it flopped big time and Google got rid of it after a few years.
24.
MoviePass