3 interesting inventions that flopped (week 1)

1) Boat cars / car boats


Boat cars are still around today, but many in the mid-1900s thought that they were going to be the future, and judging by the lack of boat cars on the roads, that doesn't look like it happened. For now, this invention has been relegated back to novelty collectors, or those who just want to spend their extra cash on the floating car.


2) Blackberry



Before the iPhone, there was the BlackBerry. These iconic devices were many users’ first smartphones, able to connect to the Internet, send and receive email, and chat with one another over the company’s BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM, service. And they were everywhere: Research in Motion, as BlackBerry was then called, sold more than 50 million of the devices in 2011.

But that proved to be the company’s high-water mark. RIM failed to keep up with the times, stubbornly sticking with its trademark physical keyboard rather than adopting an iPhone-like full touchscreen, which quickly became fashionable. By 2016, BlackBerry was selling only about 4 million devices annually. BlackBerry exists today only as a shadow of its former self, but the company’s devices paved the way for the super-powered smartphones we carry around today.


3) Google Glass


Few gadgets have debuted with as much buzz as Google Glass, the smart spectacles the search giant unveiled in 2012. From its flashy introduction demo that featured skydivers streaming their jump through the device, to a spread in Vogue, Glass had possibly one of the most-hyped gadget launches of all time. But all for naught: Google shelved the product in 2015, though it’s still being used in some professional applications.

What happened? The headset’s high price tag ($1,500) and concerns about privacy kept it from going mainstream. Glass made it easy to record video discretely, which prompted some bars, restaurants, and movie theaters to ban the gadget (and gave rise to the term “glasshole.”) While Glass may have failed, it offered valuable lessons about wearable tech. Namely: Nobody likes to be recorded without their knowledge.


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