Let's be honest: Nothing is quite so fun as dwelling on the failures of others. That is, besides
helping others.
This week
Computerworld takes us on a stroll past the tech graveyard in
this article as it looks at 21 "overpromoted products and technologies that utterly failed to live up to their hype." It serves as a cautionary tale during a time when, more than ever, societies around the globe are placing their trust in emerging technologies that -- who am I kidding? This is about schadenfreude!
I won't reveal the entire list here, but here are a few you might remember:
Apple Newton. It's funny how you can forget, but for awhile in the early '90s you couldn't go anywhere without seeing advertisements for Apple's now-prehistoric PDA. According to
Computerworld, one reason the Newton never took off...
...was the ridicule heaped on it by talk show comedians and comic strips (most notably "Doonesbury"), which focused on the supposed inaccuracy of the handwriting recognition.
Now that they mention it, I seem to remember Andrew Dice Clay doing a bit about Jack and Jill going up a hill with an Apple Newton -- and it wouldn't work! Whoa!
The Paperless Office. Yeah, right. Fun fact:
A book published by MIT Press in 2002 called The Myth of the Paperless Office found that e-mail caused a 40% increase in paper use in many organizations.
Push Technology. One of my favorites. Back in the day, many a venture capitalist patiently explained to me, the dunce journalist, how "push technology" would transform the Internet. Unfortunately, it worked better in theory than practice:
Those who did take the technology for a spin found themselves inundated with news, weather, sports and more; it wasn't easy to filter what specific information was received.
That was my experience. I think I disabled my push feed in about a half-day. Of course, as
Computerworld points out, push lives on in mobile e-mail, RSS feeds and other forms, but with better filters and controls than a decade ago.
Anyway, it's a good read.
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