Our world is constantly evolving, and there always seems to be some “next big thing” that’s supposed to have a major impact on our lives. But while some of these promises come true, many more are heavily underdelivered.
There have been plenty of occasions when something seemingly so impressive turned out to be nothing more than an absolute flop. As one Reddit user found out, these oversold disappointments are not so easily forgotten because when they asked other netizens to point them out, the answers came pouring through. Scroll down to see some of the best ones!
More info: Reddit
#1
NFTs
Image source: w3tnut123, pinguino k
#2
Olestra. If you were old enough in the 90s, you remember everyone s******g their pants over it.
Image source: jano808, Alena Shekhovtcova
#3
Modular phones. I can remember reading about how being able to choose and change the different modules based on your phone needs (better camera, better speakers, etc.) was gonna kill the iPhone. Kind of a shame really, they sounded pretty cool.
Image source: SheogorathMyBeloved, Maurizio Pesce
#4
Google+. Everyone thought it’s gonna be the facebook killer, now it’s just a history.
Image source: AnIgnorablePerson, Mohamed Hassan
#5
3D TVs
#6
New Coke. The company changed the recipe, and people were so mad that within 3 months they brought back the old one, which is why today it’s called Coke Classic.
Image source: repairmanjack
#7
Crypto
Image source: Responsible_Prune_34, David McBee
#8
Meta. Lol, who ever thought that rebranding would would be a good thing was an idiot.
Image source: A_Bit_Off_Kilter, Julio Lopez
#9
Metaverse
Image source: anon, Roland Legrand
#10
The U.S. “going metric.” We were taught as kids that we’d be thinking in kg and meters by the time we were adults.
Image source: jk1962, cottonbro studio
#11
BlackBerry without the keyboard. Fell flat on its face. Too bad was a great Canadian company and a world leader in mobile devices until they got so arrogant they thought they knew what the consumer wanted but didn’t. Buh bye BB.
Image source: SaintJohnBiDog, aaltonen
#12
Quibi, the streaming service with 5-10 minute long tv shows meant to be watched on mobile. They spent nearly $2 billion, recruited A List celebrities, were run by a former Disney executive/cofounder of Dreamworks, and completely tanked within 6 months. I believe they try to blame their failure on the pandemic, but realistically, this is what happens when a bunch of out-of-touch media executives get too into being “data-driven” and think they can synergize and scale their way into being cool. I have worked with this particular kind of star-f*cker executive and it was so satisfying and validating to see this stuff fail.
Image source: crushingqwerty, Andrea Piacquadio
#13
World war I. It was supposed to be the war to end all wars.
Image source: stokatabrat, Veteran Affairs Canada
#14
The term “Fetch”
Image source: epmoya, TM & © Paramount (2004)
#15
Flying cars.
Image source: anon, wiki commons
#16
Minidiscs.
Image source: AhFourFeckSakeLads, Matt Cornock
#17
The Titanic.
Image source: Teaandbiscuits7, Fidodog14 and SandyShores03
#18
Ngage, a phone and and a videogame system! Too bad you had to remove the battery whenever you wanted to change games.
Image source: Commander_Random, Evan-Amos
#19
400 million in funding that evaporated gives it to Theranos.
Image source: WannaTeleportMassive, TechCrunch
#20
M. Night Shyamalan was once called the next Spielberg…
Image source: TheNinjaDC, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
#21
Laserdisc.
Image source: Material_Ambition_95, @LIQUIDBONEZ
#22
2012 apocalypse
Image source: neeeenbean, cottonbro studio
#23
Fidget spinners were big in 2017. I can’t find one now, and I don’t know what else to do with my hands.
Image source: JFKRFKSRVLBJ, David Bartus
#24
Amazon’s Fire Phone.
Image source: rntopspin100, Romazur
#25
Betamax
Image source: tejt99
#26
There was this lady who said laboratory testing could be reduced to a machine the size of a microwave… turns out it was all a scam.
Image source: knomore-llama_horse, Chokniti Khongchum
#27
DivX.
DIVX was a rental format variation on the DVD player in which a customer would buy a DIVX disc (similar to a DVD) for approximately US$4.50, which was watchable for up to 48 hours from its initial viewing. After this period, the disc could be viewed by paying a continuation fee to play it for two more days. Viewers who wanted to watch a disc an unlimited number of times could convert the disc to a “DIVX silver” disc for an additional fee.
It lasted for about a year back in the late 1990s before dying — even with the backing of major studios who wanted a piece of the video rental market.
Edit: thanks to those who pointed out the error in my reference to DIVX (the unsuccessful rental company) vs DivX (the compression CODEC).
Image source: Viperlite
#28
Google Stadia/Streaming Games (in general)
Image source: Ok_Chocolate3253, Marco Verch
#29
Taleo. It was supposed to be this site that, if I remember correctly, would enable you to just have a resume and you could quickly apply to a job and submit a cover letter.
Guess HR people got tired of all the resumes that were junk. We have LinkedIn and Indeed Instant apply, but really, I just wanted a central place to upload my resume to apply for jobs.
Image source: elementaryfrequency9, cottonbro studio
#30
Sega Dreamcast
Image source: anon, Ryan Somma
#31
The XFL
Image source: badlilbadlandabad, ajay_suresh
#32
Lifi, WiFi that works with light reflections, all reflective surfaces in the house must be eliminated, so safe to assume it wasn’t very successful amongst people who use their phone in the toilet.
Image source: Muted_Warthog_942, Joel Paim
#33
Single-stage-to-orbit spacecraft. This one might take a bit of explaining.
You’ll obviously be familiar with the Space Shuttle, which was retired in 2011 with no immediate replacement. But the thing is, even back in the 1990s, NASA was already looking at what the Space Shuttle’s successor would be. And one idea they really fixed on was that, whatever this replacement would be, it would have to be a *single-stage rocket.* See, the space shuttle itself was reusable, but it relied on disposable outboard rockets to reach space, and those had to be replaced after every flight. So, the logic went, if a spacecraft could launch and reach orbit all in one piece– without dumping its rocket boosters every time– then it would be cheaper and more efficient.
NASA decided to build something called the X-33, which was this funny-looking triangle-shaped spacecraft that could fly up to space and back using just its own engines. It didn’t need any rocket boosters the way the shuttle did. So for a while in the 1990s, it looked like single-stage spacecraft were the way of the future. But as they say, reality bites. It turned out that the X-33’s special engines made it too heavy to fly, let alone reach space, and it was cancelled in 2001 before the prototype was finished. After that, NASA kind of fell out of love with the whole single-stage-to-orbit concept, and to this day they’ve never built one.
Image source: ElSquibbonator
#34
The resurrection of the DCEU, now will get a reset.
Image source: Pin_Goth
#35
Ouya.
Image source: Beard341, Carlos Sancho
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