CNET's Decade of Biggest Tech Flops

[schlesinj]

Did any of you own any of these?

Link

One of my college friends had a Dreamcast and I remember playing it in the dorm room our Freshman/Sophmore year.

[revo]

For Christmas in '06 or '07, I got an HD-DVD add-on player for my XBOX 360. Less than two months later, Netflix dropped HD DVDs and that pretty much was that. I still have it, if anyone wants to buy it (where's Papa Deuce when you need him?)

:jerry:

[cardboardbox]

I got a free Dreamcast back in college. It was pretty cool for a year or two.

HDDVD was doomed from the beginning due to poor studio support.

[Erik]

I had none of these, which is not surprising, because I'm always way behind on technology. I still don't have a smartphone.

[TranaGreg]

I consider myself to be fairly leading edge with tech toys, but luckily had none of these (tho I remember wanting more than a couple of them ...)

[Jefe]

I got a free Dreamcast back in college. It was pretty cool for a year or two.

HDDVD was doomed from the beginning due to poor studio support.

Interesting thing is that the porn industry chose HDDVD over BluRay. Which was a key factor in VHS beating Beta, but didn't help here.

There's a lot of politics involved. Sony lost the Beta fight, and they weren't going to lose for a 2nd time.

[Fresno Bob]

none of these, but then again, I thought it was going to be "tech stocks I rode to zero", which would have included Webvan and Exodus.

[Erik]

I thought Vista would be on here, but it was a hardware-only list.

[BuckyBuckner]

I avoided these too, but that's not surprising since I usually don't jump on the first release of a tech gadget. I like to wait for the next release after they work out the kinks of the first one. I'll let someone else be the guinea pig.

[TopChuckie]

I almost bought one of those Sony UMPC's several years ago, but I went with their 11" laptop instead.

Slingbox wasn't on the list, but it was mentioned on the slide about Sony's Location Free TV as being better but still not taking off as expected. I love my Slingbox and use it a lot in a variety of circumstances.

[revo]

I almost bought one of those Sony UMPC's several years ago, but I went with their 11" laptop instead.

Slingbox wasn't on the list, but it was mentioned on the slide about Sony's Location Free TV as being better but still not taking off as expected. I love my Slingbox and use it a lot in a variety of circumstances.

As more and more cable companies/TV networks make their programming available to subscribers over the internet, Slingbox is bound to disappear in a few years.

[TranaGreg]

As more and more cable companies/TV networks make their programming available to subscribers over the internet, Slingbox is bound to disappear in a few years.

actually my TV/Internet service provider's online PVR controller (Bell, here in Canada) is powered by Sling Media ... so I think that while it may disappear as a consumer product they seem to be pretty well placed.

[TopChuckie]

As more and more cable companies/TV networks make their programming available to subscribers over the internet, Slingbox is bound to disappear in a few years.

The VCR didn't last forever, doesn't mean it wasn't great technology. Everything gets phased out, but I have, and will continue for a while to get my $80 worth out of my Slingbox. Not to mention the one I bought my buddy who has Sunday Ticket every year.