Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Explain Which Overly Hyped Products Failed Spectacularly

aquamarine shoe is placed on top of sliced peaches
Irene Kredenets on Unsplash

Not everything is a good idea and not every invention should be placed on the market.

But you'll never know what can be a success without seeing if people like it.

It may sound like a billion dollar idea but in the end, you may take a loss.


Redditor istrx13 wanted to discuss the products that went nowhere, so they asked:

"What product was supposed to be the next big thing but wound up failing miserably?"

Life is all hit or miss.

Especially when inventing.

Transport Revolution

"The Segway was once touted as a revolutionary transportation device, but ultimately failed to live up to its hype due to its high cost, limited practicality, and safety concerns."

fulfillmen25

Drunk Fried Chicken GIF by Ethan BarnowskyGiphy

Shattered

"Google Glass."

doublebankshot

"I dropped I think it was $1400 on it back then, and when I got them it was immediately obvious that they were going to be a huge disappointment; everything from UI to battery life to comfort to photo quality was so bad that my first impression was that they felt almost like a joke product rather than an actual product manufactured by a tech company, not even an early developer version."

ds445

A great idea...

"Zune was supposed to be the death of Apple's monopoly on MP3 players."

HoopOnPoop

"Zune actually wasn't a bad piece of hardware. It was just that by the time it came out, iPod was already entrenched. It was around the same price, so it couldn't undercut Apple on pricing. ZunePass was actually a pretty great idea, years before Spotify."

Wulfbak

"My favorite thing about Zune is that it featured what was actually a pretty cool and interesting design feature wherein a user could send a song to another Zune user for free, but Microsoft chose the single worst possible name for this feature, calling it 'squirting.' Zune kids back in the day had to be like 'Ayyy bro that song is fire, squirt that at me.'"

HostileSkittles

Fly High

"Hoverboards. I think their primary problem was their lack of ability to hover. Also 300 ish dollars for something that goes as fast as... legs is just dumb."

IceClimbers_Main

"Their main downfall was the many, many cheap and dangerous clones from china. When the OG hoverboards were too expensive for most, the big Chinese companies saw a hole to get into the market making them for pennies on the dollar by removing safety devices, using cheaper batteries, lower gauge wire, etc. It was for the worst."

ptthree420

Entertainment Options

"Curved TVs… oh and 3D TVs we’re a thing for a while too!"

Sherlockssocks

"I own a curved 3D TV. I've probably used the 3D less than a hundred times. I think if they'd pushed the spilt screen gaming thing a bit more they would have sold more."

Signal-Morning7669

Shake Your Rump Television GIF by Beastie BoysGiphy

Those curved TVs freak me out.

I just liked my DVD

"Laser discs...? I think they were called. Picture a DVD the size of a record."

Drawn-Otterix

"Laserdiscs were successful, they're just an obsolete format now."

Born_Anteater_3495

digital audio spinning GIF by Feliks Tomasz KonczakowskiGiphy

Cleansed

"Olestra/Olean. It was going to transform all junk food into low fat. Instead, it transformed lower GI tracts."

1800sMan

"OMG this! Around 1998 I worked for a huge ad agency on Madison Ave in NYC that had the Pringles account. They were pushing that Olestra trash at the time and obvi it was to be part of the campaign we were creating. One day I grab a can and start munching away."

"Well 15 minutes later I feel like I’ve swallowed a hand grenade and start racing to the bathroom where I proceed to destroy the bathroom for a good half hour. It just would not stop. I swear I saw a demon that day while emptying my poor bowels. Never ever again with that Olestra garbage."

bruh_wut69

Guess What?

"Oh man this is really specific to my career field in childcare."

"Smart diapers. Yep, diapers that will inform you on your app when your child uses them. I don’t know anyone who seriously considered getting these. But I remember seeing ads on my social media for them. Guess what? No one wanted them."

Onlyfansnanny

"As a law student, my son worked on getting the patent and prototype on these a little over ten years ago. At the time, however, they were being marketed to nursing homes. IDK whatever happened with that."

Ok-Bee1579

The Mess

"Meta."

SuperScario

"I finally decided to look up what meta was on Youtube a few months ago and I swear I thought I was watching some Nintendo wii game or something. My jaw hit the floor when I realized that's what meta actually looked like, billions of dollars for a Nintendo looking world, what a f**king dumpster fire."

twister55555

Bute Sized

"Quibi."

chyna094e

"Part of it was the worst timing imaginable. The service was meant to be 'bite sized' entertainment, something you could watch in 5 minutes while standing in a queue or maybe a couple segments on a public transit ride."

"They launched the first week of April 2020. Remember all the queues you were standing in and public transit rides you took then? Yeah, the same as everyone else - NONE because 95% of the population was stuck at home for 6 months!"

alinroc

Minis...

"Spore. It was hyped as a game that went from spark of life to galactic conquest. It's just a bunch of mini games."

rosanymphae

College Hoops Sport GIF by NCAA March MadnessGiphy

I missed the spore phenomenon.

Oh well.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Screenshots from @harryl1223's TikTok video
@harryl1223/TikTok

Cynthia Erivo Praised For Calmly De-Escalating Tense Confrontation With Agitated Man Outside London Theater

Cynthia Erivo continues to show just how talented she is as she recently debuted her one-woman production of Dracula in London's West End.

Earlier this week, Erivo appeared in the backstage lot to speak to fans after one of her shows. But before she stepped out, an altercation had occurred, and a man was making a scene.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots of Nancy Mace and Tim Walz
@Acyn/X

Tim Walz Has Epic Clapback After Nancy Mace Asks Him To Define 'Woman' During Congressional Hearing

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz had a splendid response after South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace attempted to claim that his support for transgender women would bar him from recognizing fraud in his state.

Walz's appearance at the hearing comes amid conservative claims—offered with little supporting evidence—that Somali-run childcare centers in Minnesota improperly received public funds intended to support childcare for low-income families. Subsequently, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI expanded their presence in Minnesota as federal authorities froze childcare funding statewide.

Keep ReadingShow less
Padma Lakshmi (left) reacts during an appearance on The Daily Show as Vice President JD Vance (right) stands with his wife, Second Lady Usha Vance (right).
@thedailyshow/Instagram; Antoine Gyori - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

Padma Lakshmi Hilariously Roasts JD Vance And His Wife Over Atrocious 'Ranch Dressing' Meal

Padma Lakshmi served up a top-tier helping of judgment for Vice President JD Vance’s questionable meal choice for his wife, Usha Vance.

The second lady, Usha Vance (née Chilukuri), is an American lawyer who made history as the first Indian American and first Hindu to hold the role. Her parents immigrated to the United States from Andhra Pradesh, India.

Keep ReadingShow less
Chloe Kim; P!nk
NBC

Olympian Chloe Kim Just Gushed To P!nk About Loving One Of Her Songs—Except It's Not A P!nk Song

Most of us have gotten our pop queens mixed up a time or two, but few of us have done so on national television—while talking to the pop queen in question.

But Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim sure has!

Keep ReadingShow less
Elmo; Zohran Mamdani
Paul Zimmerman/WireImage/Getty Images; Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images

Elmo Just Asked His Followers 'Where Have You Been?'—And Zohran Mamdani Had The Purest Response

Elmo, the furry red childlike monster from Sesame Street designed by Caroly Wilcox, began his life as a generic "baby monster" background filler in the 1979-1980 season of the long-running children's television program.

Originally having a gruff voice supplied by various puppeteers, Elmo found his falsetto-voiced, loving persona when Kevin Clash took over in 1985. Elmo was transformed into a three-and-a-half-year-old character designed to connect with the show's audience of preschoolers.

Keep ReadingShow less