December 31, 2013
NEW DELHI: 2013 will be remembered as the year that Google's internet-beaming balloons took flight, Amazon's robot drones took off to deliver packages and Apple ushered in 64-bit processing for mobile phones and tablets. Phones got curved screen and self-healing backs. And, everything – from TVs to phones to tablets – went Full HD.
December 31, 2013
NEW DELHI: 2013 will be remembered as the year that Google's internet-beaming balloons took flight, Amazon's robot drones took off to deliver packages and Apple ushered in 64-bit processing for mobile phones and tablets. Phones got curved screen and self-healing backs. And, everything – from TVs to phones to tablets – went Full HD.
2013 saw several tech flops
However, just like these tech successes, 2013 also saw several flops – many from some of the biggest names in the industry. So, here's our list of 10 biggest tech flops of 2013…
Apple iPhone 5C
For the past half-a-decade, every gadget that Apple made has sold like hot cakes. But not iPhone 5C. The poor man's iPhone has an "unapologetically plastic" body, iPhone 5's specs and nothing to boast of except new colour options. Apple has reportedly cut its production volumes by a large margin and is trying to peddle existing stocks via various schemes. Definitely a fail.
Samsung Galaxy S4
Much like Apple, everything Samsung touches also turns to gold nowadays. However, Galaxy S4, its top phone for a large part of the year, failed to meet expectations. Most reviewers rated it below rivals like HTC One in terms of design and build quality. The device too did not have too many features that could put it ahead of competitors. Sales also did not sizzle and Samsung is said to have pushed up the launch of Galaxy S5 seeing the market response to S4.
Samsung Galaxy Gear
Samsung's much-hyped smartwatch Galaxy Gear too failed to impress both analysts and buyers. Galaxy Gear seemed like a device trying to do too much. Not content with just notifications and basic functions, Samsung tried to cram voice calling in the smartwatch and the effect was an awkward way of making or receiving calls. We'd rather stick to Bluetooth headsets.
BlackBerry
Without a doubt, BlackBerry deserves a place in this list. The company's last shot at resurgence, BlackBerry 10 operating system failed to click with consumers. The company's first BB10-powered phones Z10 and Q10 smartphones failed to find too many takers. The fact that its newly-crowned creative director Alicia Keys was caught tweeting from an iPhone did not help, though she claimed her account was hacked.
The company decided to put itself on the block for sale, but later decided against this move. It got a billion-dollar boost from investor Prem Watsa. In the past quarter, BlackBerry sold 1.9 million smartphones, almost half of what it shipped in the previous quarter.
Nokia
Nokia too has had a pretty turbulent year. While it has found success at the low end of the smartphone spectrum with Lumia 520, it is still looking for a breakthrough device at the top end. The company – once the biggest name in mobile phones – sold its mobile division to Microsoft. Its former CEO Stephen Elop, a Microsoft employee now, is secretly being called a Trojan horse for facilitating this transaction.
But it is not hard to wonder where Nokia would have been had it adopted Android instead of Windows Phone. In fact, leaked images and reports about a budget Android Nokia phone have been doing rounds this year. So it is safe to say that the Android option was on the radar, but Nokia thinks it is better to sell off its best known division. A collective failure in our eyes.
Facebook Home
Facebook's home on Android phones was a disaster. The social network's effort to overtake smartphones' screens and turning them into a huge news feed and notification panel was shot down across the world. The app was downloaded by less than 5 million of Facebook's 1.2 billion users.
The official Facebook phone, named HTC First, hit the market at contract price of $99 on AT&T, but soon got price slashed to $0.99 and then was dropped by the telecom carrier altogether.
Online privacy
2013 was a bad, bad year for online privacy fanatics. Not only did they find out that US's National Security Agency spied on everyone – from heads of states to American across. But also that this spying was deemed legal by court.
What's worse, major companies like Google, Apple, Yahoo etc worked with the US government in this snoopgate and provided NSA all the user data it wanted. But the NSA didn't stop at just spying at the people, it even hacked the servers of Google, Yahoo etc, surprising even its partners.
Microsoft's CEO succession planning
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer dropped a bombshell on the company's shareholders when he announced this year that he will retire in 12 months. While the shares of the world's biggest software maker rose with this announcement, Microsoft is believed to be scrambling to find its next leader.
This reflects poorly on the company's succession planning. With several names, including internal candidates like Satya Nadella and Stephen Elop and external candidates like current Ford chief Alan Mullaly, the race for Microsoft's next CEO is still open. It's is time Microsoft starts focusing on grooming new leaders.
HTC
HTC has seen its fortune rise and fall in the past half-a-decade. But things went from bad to worse for the company in 2013 as sales and revenues dwindled and HTC One – its crown jewel and the smartphone that was supposed to fuel its resurgence – failed to attract buyers. The fact that its vice president of designing was allegedly selling the designs of upcoming smartphones did not help either.
Google killing Reader
Google gave us Reader, one of the best content aggregation tools on the web, and then took it away — for no apparent reason. The company claimed that it is shutting Reader due to declining user base.
However, the huge hue and cry over Google killing the Reader tool proves this statement to be false. The internet search giant faced a lot of flak from netizens across the world and over 100,000 people signed an online petition to convince it to not kill Reader, but to no avail. Killing Reader is one of the biggest mistakes Google has made in public eyes.
Courtesy: Tech News
