We’ve come such a long way in such a short time! Now we’ve got gorgeous smartphones with great displays that seem to give us all that we ever need in terms of technology, but there have been some gadgets in the past decade that have failed not only to satisfy us, but also to impress us. We’ve got 10 of the worst gadget fails ever that will amuse you, make you raise an eyebrow and wonder what in sweet God’s name they were thinking when they thought of making those contraptions. If you owned a device on our list, then you must leave us a comment and tell us about your experience with it!
10. Sony Tablet P (2012)
The Sony Tablet P was such a fail, that it’s a wonder it ever came out. Aside from the fact that it looked weird as hell, it only supported HSPA (no AT&T’s LTE network). It was bulky and expensive and it looked like a clamshell. Besides, while some of the apps stretched across both screens, but it was impossible to run two apps at the same time. What was Sony thinking with this one?!
9. Blackberry Storm (2008)
Blackberry loves its keyboard, but in 2008 it thought to ditch it and go all touchscreen on us! It was one of the biggest smartphone fails in history. The product didn’t have Wi-Fi (it seems almost incredible, doesn’t it?) and the software was a nightmare with that horrible SureType. They tried to make amends with the Storm 2, but that flopped wonderfully, also. Needless to say Blackberry didn’t try to make a touch smartphone for a long time after the Storm 2.
8. Oakley Thump Sunglasses (2007)
The Oakley Thump Sunglasses are the great-great-great grandfather of Google Glass. The device combined an MP3 player with sunglasses – read that sentence again without laughing, we dare you. The sunglasses were dead ugly and controls were hard to use. Besides, you got 256MB of memory and price was… a cool $500!
7. Sharp RD3D (2003)
Sharp didn’t last much longer in the laptop market after this product launched. This laptop featured a 3D display that you could use without the aid of glasses. The idea is pretty awesome, but the performance was sluggish and the viewing angles were the worse in history. Besides, can you guess the price? The Sharp RD3D was $3,300! I truly wonder why Sharp though this laptop was going to be a hit!
6. Dell Streak (2010)
The Dell Streak was a device that some would call a precursor to phablets. But it was incredibly large and bulky, it had a low resolution (800 x 480 pixels) and ran Android 1.6 software. Yes, Android 1.6 – imagine how horrible it must have been to operate this contraption. We have to say that the Dell Streak is one of the worst gadget fails ever!
5. Garmin Nuvifone G60 (2009)
Garmin was a God in the GPS industry, so when the Motorola Droid included Google Navigation, Garmin felt threatened and thought it would do something about it, so it launched the Garmin Nuvifone G60. It had a large 3.5-inch display and a driver-friendly interface, but the thing that sealed its fate was that it was a Linux phone. You don’t just throw Linux on a smartphone and expect people to like it!
4. Nokia N-Gage (2003)
There was a time when Nokia ruled the world. They didn’t want to leave anything out, so at one point they wanted to rule the gaming market, so they put out the Nokia N-Gage, a phone which doubled as a mobile console. To be honest, it didn’t look that bad, but when you held it up to use it as a phone, it was weird and uncomfortable. Besides, to change games, you had to remove the back cover and battery.
3. Twitter Peek (2009)
In this day and age to release a single-purpose device is madness! The Twitter Peek let you check your Twitter feed and post updated. That’s about all you could do with it! Aside from the fact that the device only let you see 20-character previews of tweets, it was buggy and there were a plethora of free apps for phones that would let you do the very thing this device was doing. No wonder it failed, right?
2. HP Touchpad (2011)
You’ll have to ask yourself why a tablet made by one of the largest laptop and desktop producers in the world failed so miserably? It was one of the most awaited tablets of the year! Well, to put blankly, it was bad. Undoubtedly bad! The performance was buggy, the apps sucked (that’s a technical term, by the way), so HP had to pull it from the shelves less than 3 months after its launch. Ouch!
1. Microsoft Zune (2010)
Microsoft went after the iPod with their Zune, but it was a huge fail. The Zune-to-Zune sharing feature was horrible: you could only play tracks that you acquired three times within three days and you needed to be next to a Zune owner for the sharing to work. I mean, even Bill Gate’s daughter had an iPod!
Do you agree that these 10 are the worst gadget fails ever? We’re sure you have something to add to our list. Drop us a line in the comment section below and let us know what you’re thinking about.
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