Tales from the Wikipedia Trash Can 5 - Commercial Flops

Gone from the Wikipedia, but not from our hearts. Without further ado,

List of commercial failures From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
A commercial failure is a product that does not reach expectations of success, failing to come even close. A major flop goes one step further and is recognized for its almost complete lack of success.

Most of the items listed below are ones that had high expectations, large amounts of money or widespread publicity, but fell far short of success. Obviously, due to the subjective nature of "success" and "meeting expectations", there can be disagreement about what constitutes a "major flop".

Contents
* 1 Commercial failures in aviation
* 2 Automotive flops
* 3 Computing flops
3.1 Hardware flops
3.1.1 Personal computers
3.1.2 Supercomputers
3.1.3 Devices and technology
3.2 Software flops
* 4 Internet Dot-Com flops
* 5 Retail flops
* 6 Food and drink flops
* 7 Other commercial flops

Commercial failures in aviation
These are aircraft which failed in the marketplace, but may have been technically sound. For aircraft which failed to work at all, see List of famous failures in science and engineering.

Airbus A318 and A340-200
Sales were lower than Airbus expected.

Boeing flops
The Boeing 717, 737-600, 747SP, and 757-300 failed to receive the orders that Boeing originally expected. The 737-600 is still for sale, however, and as the development cost was shared with other 737 models, it might not be considered a flop in the traditional sense. The Boeing 767-400ER, while receiving only a few orders, wasn't a flop because it was intended to be a niche aircraft for Delta Air Lines and Continental Airlines to replace their Lockheed L-1011 and McDonnell Douglas DC-10 fleets.

Bristol Brabazon
A giant airliner that was too expensive, too large for the time, and carried too few passengers in great luxury rather than many passengers in less space.

Convair CV-880 and CV-990
Both were commercial disasters as they only offered five-abreast seating, and were easily out-competed on price by the Boeing 720 which was based on an existing aircraft type.

Dassault Aviation Mercure
This aircraft had an extremely limited range and as a result only ten were put in service, by the French domestic airline Air Inter.

Douglas Super DC-3
An attempt to improve the famous Douglas DC-3, only three were sold as large numbers of war surplus C-47s were available for about $8,000 each. The Super DC-3 cost $200,000.
VFW-614
Another small, short-range jet, notable for its unique over-wing engine installation. Only 16 were built.

Lockheed L-1011
The aircraft was a technically sound design (indeed, more advanced than the competing McDonnell Douglas DC-10). However, the cost of the development of the Rolls-Royce RB211 engine caused Rolls-Royce to go bankrupt, and delayed the programme. In the end, with only 250 frames sold, and 500 needed for the project to break even, the L-1011 resulted in a loss to Lockheed of $2.5 billion, or $10 million per aircraft. Lockheed left the civil airliner market after the failure of the L-1011.

McDonnell Douglas MD-87 and MD-90
Both failed to receive orders as compared with the Boeing 737 family and Airbus A320 family, both of which had high-bypass turbofan engines which burned less fuel than the low-bypass engines of the MD-87 and MD-90.
Northrop F-20 Tigershark
This fighter aircraft was designed as a private venture for export, but failed utterly as air forces wanted the more prestigious F-16 Fighting Falcon used by the United States Air Force, despite the F-20's lower cost.

Spruce Goose
Only one prototype was built of wood by Howard Hughes's Hughes Aircraft. It had the largest wingspan of any plane ever built.

Supersonic transports
Boeing 2707, Lockheed L-2000, Tupolev Tu-144, arguably Concorde

Automotive flops
Acura Vigor
The Vigor was a midsize sedan introduced in 1992 that fit between the Integra and the Legend in Acura's lineup. Sales were slow due to the car's 5-cylinder engine and small size, and it was cancelled after only 3 years in production.

Bricklin SV-1
This safety/sports car from Canada suffered from quality problems. Just 2,857 were sold in 3 years.

Buick Reatta
The Reatta was an aerodynamically-styled car originally made by Buick to attract "mature" buyers. But the car's controversial styling and heavy amount of computerized features actually turned out to repel them. The car was mostly handbuilt and the Reatta never topped 20,000 units in a 4 year run.

Cadillac V-8-6-4 variable cylinder engine
Poor reliability and dubious benefit doomed the variable displacement concept for a decade.

Caterham 21
Intended as a modern, more practical alternative to the Caterham/Lotus Seven. Unfortunately, Lotus successfully reinvented the Seven themselves at the same time with the Lotus Elise.

Chevrolet Corvair
A case study in Ralph Nader's Unsafe At Any Speed claimed the Corvair had a tendency to roll over, causing the car's eventual downfall.

Chrysler Airflow
Advanced aerodynamic design made the mistake of being far ahead of its mid-1930s era; in the depths of the Great Depression, the few who could afford a new car were looking for slight improvements on the tried-and-true, not a radically new concept.

Chrysler E-Class
This luxury car made by Chrysler sold poorly and only lasted for two years, 1983 and 1984.

Chrysler TC
The Chrysler TC was a luxury car made by both Chrysler and Maserati. Because it looked too similar to the Chrysler LeBaron of the time (in addition to its high price), the TC bombed and was only produced from 1989 to 1991.

Daewoo
This Korean marque flopped badly in some markets, especially the United States. When Daewoo made its U.S. debut for the 1999 model year, it sold cars through independent contractors on college campuses rather than at conventional dealerships. U.S. sales ended in 2002 when Daewoo Motor America went bankrupt. New owner General Motors has dropped the Daewoo name outside Asia. However, Daewoo sales have been moderately successful in some regions, such as the UK.

De Lorean
Roughly 9,000 were built before John De Lorean's arrest on charges of cocaine-smuggling (which he was later acquitted for) closed the factory two years after its launch.

Dodge Rampage
The Dodge Rampage was a mixture of a car and a pickup truck. It was based upon the Dodge Omni. The Rampage was a front wheel drive truck, which is not normally used for trucks because a heavy load on the rear of the truck can cause traction problems. This is mainly considered to be the downfall of the Rampage, along with a weak engine. Its Plymouth Scamp twin only sold around 2,000 units, making it one of the rarest Plymouths ever created.

Buckminster Fuller's 1933 Dymaxion car
Original and innovative, but a fatal crash and safety issues with rear-wheel steering aborted investor interest and further development. A total of three were built.

Eagle
The Eagle brand was formed by Chrysler from the remains of AMC. Aimed at the enthusiast driver, sales of the badge-engineered cars faltered and the marque was folded after 11 years. Only the Eagle Talon was an unqualified sales success.

Edsel
One of the most successful new car line launches in history quickly became a legendary flop. Just over 100,000 were built in four years. In 1960, Edsel's final model year, only a few thousand were built.

Ford Pinto
This car's downfall was brought about in safety tests that revealed that, due to the location of the car's fuel tank, it tended to explode during mild rear-end collisions. The problem was fixed for 1977 models, but sales never recovered. The Pinto was finally discontinued in 1980.

Ford Ranger EV
Ford's only electric-powered pickup truck. There were numerous problems with the NiMH battery-equipped Rangers associated with an inability to accept a charge in hot environmental conditions, and some other problems requiring replacement of major components, but Ford successfully addressed these problems early in the vehicle's life cycle. There were some range issues around the 25,000 mile service life with the NiMH batteries, and due to the great expense of these batteries, Ford elected not to fix this range problem (a valid response under the lease terms). Some leases elected to continue the lease despite the shorter range.

Ford Taurus Ghia
Since its introduction in 1986, the Ford Taurus has rewritten the rules for building a midsize car and still dominiates the midsize car market, and is one of Ford's most successful models. But when Ford tried to push the Taurus on European and Australian buyers, with slight modifications from the American model and called the "Taurus Ghia", Ford learned the hard way that just because a car is successful in one market doesn't mean that it will be successful in another.

Leyland P76
Infamous in Australia as a commercial flop.

Lincoln Blackwood
luxury pickup truck: A velvet-lined bed, low towing capability, and a single exterior color led to the cancellation of this model after 15 months with 3,356 sold. The Lincoln Mark LT is the current "try again" of this model.

Lister Storm
The Lister Storm was a four-seater supercar which made 591 hp and was built by Lister. Due to financial purposes, only 5 were built, 3 still survive. The Storm still exists today in the racing scene.

Mazda Navajo
The Mazda Navajo was a two door SUV that was a badge engineered Ford Explorer. Even though Explorer sales soared the day it was introduced and became the best selling SUV, the Navajo sold very poorly and when the Explorer was redesigned in 1995, the Navajo was discontinued and the Explorer got a new running mate, the Mercury Mountaineer.

Mercury Marauder
The Marauder was introduced in 2003 as a modern day muscle car, but the Marauder suffered from lackluster sales, blamed by some on bland styling, gutless performance, and incorrect target audience. It didn't return for the 2005 model year.

Mercury Mystique
The Mercury Mystique was part of Ford's attempt to try the successful European Ford Mondeo on the American market as the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique. Both cars were not meant for the American market and their high price steered buyers towards the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable, because for about the same price as a Mystique or Contour, they gould get a bigger and more comfortable car. However, Ford was able to sell Contours at an average pace, but Mercury was barely able to sell Mystiques. The car's poor sales gave it the nickname the "Mercury Mistake". Both cars were discontinued in 2000.

Merkur
This U.S. marque, which consisted of two rebadged European Ford models, lasted only four years.

NSU Ro 80
A stylish and advanced car that was plagued by early reliability problems with its revolutionary Wankel engine. The resulting financial crisis lead to the company being acquired by Volkswagen.

Oldsmobile 5.7L diesel engine
Also marketed as the Olds 350 Diesel, it was offered in General Motors automobiles between 1978 and 1985. Because it was a modified gasoline engine rather than a proper diesel design, the unit had a tendency to tear itself apart. So poor was this engine's reliability record that small diesel engines were shunned by U.S. consumers for a generation.

Pontiac Aztek
Controversial styling resulted in just over 27,000 sales per year instead of an expected 50,000 to 70,000. Discontinued in 2005.

Sinclair C5
A battery-powered tricycle designed by Sir Clive Sinclair.

Sterling
This U.S. version of the British Rover 800 suffered from poor build quality, feeble performance and a lack of brand recognition. Sales dropped from 15,000 in 1988 to fewer than 2,000 in 1991.

Subaru SVX
The Subaru SVX was a futuristic car made by Subaru which is the only production car to date to have an all around glass canopy. The car flopped in every market it was sold in due to lack of advertisement, concerns of safety in a rollover, radical styling, and it came in the time when the US was falling in love with the SUV. It was also plagued with known reliability problems due to its heavy weight. Worldwide production of the SVX never topped 40,000 units through a 6 year run.

Suzuki X-90
This 2-seater sporty mini-SUV was not welcomed in the market. Just 7,205 were sold in 3 years, making it among the slowest-selling full-production vehicles in history.

Tucker automobile
Preston Tucker's streamlined automobile with a rear engine and then-innovative safety features. Tucker's attempt to launch a major automobile company failed, either due to conspiracy by the major manufacturers, shady financial maneuvers by Tucker or both. A total of 51 were built.

Vauxhall Firenza HPF
Just 204 built instead of the projected 30,000+. Killed by the fuel crisis, its rarity has at least assured it classic status in modern times.

Volkswagen 412
Volkswagen's last rear-engine, air-cooled car. Although it had interesting and novel technologies at the time (MacPherson struts in front, independent rear suspension; fuel injection; a supplemental heater powered by gasoline), the car was only produced from 1969 until July 1974.

Yugo
This Yugoslavian car was sold in the United States from 1986 to 1990, and was bashed as highly unreliable. It was featured in the movie Dragnet (1988) as a punishment for Dan Aykroyd's character's repeated crashing of his cars, and was referred to as "the latest in Serbo-Croatian technology". Yugo has become to cheapness as Cadillac has become to quality.

Computing flops

Hardware flops

Personal computers

Amiga CDTV
This early multimedia computer was overpriced and suffered from using the obsolete AmigaOS 1.3, when version 2.0 was already available.

Apple Computer flops
The Apple III, Apple Lisa, and arguably the Apple Newton are notable flops. Many of the Lisa's features were later incorporated into the far more successful Apple Macintosh.

Atari Falcon030
The Falcon came right at the time when the PC "Wintel" and the Macintosh computers had eluded the competition of smaller products, such as the Atari ST, the Amiga, or the Amstrad CPC. Virtually no software was written for the Falcon030.

Be, Inc.
Mid-90's personal computer maker/OS vendor founded by former Apple Computer executive Jean-Louis Gassée. Hopes of an acquisition by Apple Computer in order to develop a successor to the Mac OS waned after Apple chose instead to acquire NeXT. After the failed introduction of the BeBox and Apple's decision to acquire NeXT, BeOS was unsuccessfully marketed as a replacement for the then-ubiquitous Microsoft Windows. Ultimately, Palm acquired what remained of the company.

Coleco Adam
A home computer created by toy/video game company Coleco that nearly bankrupted the company.

Commodore Plus/4
In the 1980s, Commodore International became the first company to sell a million home computers. Hoping to repeat the success of its multi-million-selling VIC-20 and C64 computers, it released the Commodore Plus/4 in 1984. It flopped. Commodore went on to achieve success with the Commodore Amiga, but went bankrupt in 1994.

Enterprise 128
Announced in September 1983, but failed to be produced until May 1985 when its features were not so impressive anymore. It also suffered several name changes: First it was called Enterprise Elan, then Flan, then Samurai and finally just Enterprise.

Go (pen computing corporation)
Cited by Jim Louderback as one of the "eight biggest tech flops ever".

Hip-e
Announced with great marketing and hype in mid-2004 by the Digital Lifestyles Group, this personal computer, which aimed at teenagers, failed miserably in the market. As a result, all productions and support stopped just one year later. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
IBM PS/2 and IBM PCjr
After the rise of PC clones and compatibles, IBM struggled in the PC market.
Netpliance iOpener and New Internet Computer (NIC)
Despite being created as "Internet appliances", cheaper alternatives for consumers to access the Internet without buying a PC, both the iOpener and NIC were flops. Netpliance went bankrupt in 2001; the company would later change its name to TippingPoint Technologies but was later acquired by 3Com. The Internet appliance would later be named by Jim Louderback as one of the "eight biggest tech flops ever".

NeXT Computer
Steve Jobs founded NeXT after his 1985 ouster from Apple Computer. The product and company were media darlings, but sold in small numbers. NeXT was ultimately bought out by Apple, and after Steve Jobs took charge of the company, NeXT technology became the foundation of Mac OS X.

Sinclair QL
A somewhat unsuccessful attempt by Sinclair Research to make a 16 bit computer in the mid-1980s.

WebTV (now MSN TV)
Internet delivery via television set and set-top box. Cited by Jim Louderback as one of the "eight biggest tech flops ever".

Supercomputers

Advanced Scientific Computer supercomputer by TI

Convex C3 mini-supercomputer

Cray-3 gallium arsenide supercomputer

IBM 7030
Also known as "Stretch", the 7030 was IBM's first attempt at building a supercomputer. Its actual performance was less than one third of its original specification. This resulted in IBM drastically dropping the price and losing money on every machine sold.
ILLIAC IV array processor supercomputer

Devices and technology
Bubble memory
Heralded as the next big thing, it was widely expected to all-but-replace every other form of storage. The technology and engineering were sound, and numerous products were actually brought to market, but it was never able to gain any significant cost edge over the rapidly improving technologies it was supposed to displace.

:CueCat barcode scanner
Designed to allow magazine readers to read magazines while seated at their computers, and navigate effortlessly to advertisers' websites by passing the CueCat over barcodes printed in ads that caught their fancy. Thousands were given away free at Radio Shack stores. What killed it was people's utter lack of interest in its functionality.

Compact Floppy 3 Inch floppy disk
With 360k or 720k DD, used mainly in obscure systems like Osborne Computers, Einstien, MSX (in some regions, though 3.5" disks were more common with the platform) and famously Amstrad CPC/PCW range before being outclassed by the now standard Sony 3.5".

Data Play CD replacement disk technology
Cited by Jim Louderback as one of the "eight biggest tech flops ever".

IBM's Micro Channel Architecture PC bus (MCA)
Solved the problems IBM had itself created with its predecessor, the PC-AT bus. IBM and many industry analysts assumed that the need to be "IBM-compatible" would force other vendors to adopt the MCA, for which IBM charged high licensing fees. In fact customers did not care, and the industry largely ignored the bus. This flop was significant because it was widely interpreted as indicating that IBM no longer controlled the PC architecture and had lost its leadership position.

Iomega Clik! drive
Cited by Jim Louderback as one of the "eight biggest tech flops ever".

INMOS Transputer
This attempt at a different way of computing is now largely forgotten.

Intel iAPX 432 microprocessor
Introduced in 1981 as the next great computer architecture after Intel's x86 line. Considered one of the most complicated microprocessors ever built, it delivered low performance and went nowhere in the market.

Itanium
Intel expected its new server CPU, the Itanium (referred to by detractors as "the Itanic"), to revolutionize the microprocessor industry. In 2001, after 7 years of development and billions of dollars spent, the first Itanium chip proved an utter technical and commercial failure. The Itanium 2, released a year later, improved the chip in some areas. However timid managment at competing companies, scared by the Itanium, abandoned the DEC Alpha and an advanced version of the SPARC, giving Intel less competition; in this sense it may have been a success for Intel.

Rambus's RDRAM
RDRAM can arguably be considered a flop. Competitors feared that Intel was trying to control the memory market through Rambus, so they joined together to develop DDR SDRAM. DDR SDRAM offered comparable performance to RDRAM and was much less expensive. This forced Intel to abandon exclusive support for RDRAM. As of 2004, Intel has abandoned RDRAM with all new products using DDR SDRAM or DDR2 SDRAM. (RDRAM's successor XDR DRAM is used by the IBM/Sony/Toshiba "Cell" processor.)

Sony HiFD
Intended to replace the 3.5 inch floppy drive, but was prevented from doing so due to an early recall, compatibility problems, and the rise of cheap recordable CDs.

Software flops
Adobe LiveMotion
Adobe's failed animated vector graphics program to compete with Macromedia's Flash

IBM's OS/2
Originally developed as a replacement for DOS, in partnership with Microsoft. Consistently mismanaged by IBM, who failed to market it properly in the mid-1990s against the Microsoft Windows juggernaut, it nevertheless still retains a small number of loyal users.

Microsoft Bob
This "user-friendly" replacement for the Windows 3.1 interface was one of the biggest flops to ever come out of Microsoft.

Internet Dot-Com flops

There are thousands of failed companies from the dot-com tech bubble of the late 1990s. Here are a few of the largest and most famous.

Boo.com
Sold clothing and accessories. After blowing through hundreds of millions of dollars of venture capital on a poorly-planned business model, it became the poster-child for mismanaged dot-coms.

eToys
Failed Web toy superstore. Notorious for attempting to sell its customer list in an attempt to ward off bankruptcy, despite its TRUSTe-certified privacy statement promising that "We do not sell, rent, loan or transfer any personal information regarding our customers or their kids to any unrelated third parties. Any information you give us . . . will not be used in ways to which you have not consented." Name was acquired and the site relaunched October 23, 2001 by K-B Toys.

Kozmo.com
Bike messenger delivery service for individuals

Pets.com
An online pet food store that focused more on its brand name than profitability. Most notable for its sock puppet icon.

Webvan
This grocery delivery service spent far too much on infrastucture before it had even turned a profit.

Retail flops
Marks & Spencer
In the late 1990s, the Prada-inspired "gray range" turned Marks & Spencer from darling of the British retail scene to an embarrassment.

Iceland
Iceland, an otherwise successful British supermarket chain, attempted to go up-market by stocking only organic own-labels, a plan that backfired after its core market of low-incomers couldn't afford it.

Ralphs/The GIANT
Ralphs, a Southern California supermarket chain, launched a warehouse club brand in August 1986, but was unable to compete with more established clubs while confusing patrons of their traditional grocery stores.

Old Chicago
A bold concept of a shopping mall and indoor amusement park, Old Chicago opened in suburban Chicago, Illinois in 1975. Plagued by structural faults left over from its hurried construction, fires, and a lack of big-name department stores, the complex shut down only six years later, and was demolished after 11 years.

Port Plaza Mall
An urban, downtown shopping mall, an attempt to make the city of Green Bay, Wisconsin compete with its suburbs in 1977.

The Tricorn Center
Shortly after being built, was voted one of the ugliest buildings in the country. Suffered from severe building design and construction while steadily housing less and less business. Was destroyed in 2004.

Food and drink flops
Bambeanos
Introduced by Colgate-Palmolive in 1975, this snack consisting of roasted and flavored whole soybeans cost US $750,000 to develop and market. The product was withdrawn with under 25,000 cases sold, as it rapidly gained a reputation for causing excessive flatulence. A jury later awarded a half million dollars to the roasting contractor after Colgate's withdrawal.

Buckler
A Dutch brand of non-alcoholic beer sold by Heineken, became a commercial disaster after stand-up comedian Youp van 't Hek stereotyped the Buckler drinker in one of his shows. Heineken later admitted that the beer itself didn't taste good.

Crystal Pepsi
Despite a huge marketing campaign, Crystal Pepsi lasted only one year in the U.S. Like many discontinued products, Crystal Pepsi maintains a small but dedicated following on the Internet. Pepsi Blue and Pepsi Edge were two other unsuccessful products.

Dasani
Coca-Cola's brand of bottled water was a flop in the UK after it emerged it was essentially just tap water from Sidcup, England, treated to make it more pure but in fact containing high levels of bromate (an ion which can cause tooth decay).

dnL
dnL was offered as the exact opposite of 7up. Despite a large advertising compaign, sales were poor.

McDonald's' Arch Deluxe
The Arch Deluxe was an attempt to market burgers to the adult fast-food consumer. Consumers were turned off by the unconventional ads and the high price; consumer groups were put off by the higher caloric content of the new burger.

McDonalds' Hula Burger
With sagging sales in Catholic areas since meat is not allowed to be consumed on Fridays according to religious guidelines, the Hula Burger was created. It was actually a grilled pineapple, and people said that "They could taste the hula, but not the burger". After a while, it was pulled off, and replaced by the more successful Filet-o-Fish

McDonalds' 1989 and 1994 attempts to serve pizza

New Coke
The Coca-Cola company changed the formula and taste of its flagship product, a universally successful drink whose name was almost synonymous with soft drinks. Introduced in the U.S. on April 23, 1985, it was a marketing and public relations debacle, and the company had to backtrack and return to the older formula. Though there had been plans to roll-out New Coke internationally, its prompt failure prevented this, so New Coke was only ever sold in the U.S. When they went back to the original formula, demand for the classic taste grew to a greater extent than before New Coke, propelling Coca-Cola to a market lead over arch-rival Pepsi – making the situation an unintentional success for Coca-Cola. Many maintain that the flub was intentional and that the heads of Coca-Cola planned the whole thing. [7]

OK Soda
Manufactured and marketed by The Coca-Cola Company, OK Soda was specifically targeted at Generation X with subtle and ironic advertising messages. The product was only released in select test markets, where it did not do well.

Orbitz
This fruit-flavored beverage with little edible balls suspended within suffered from low sales.

Red Fusion
Red Fusion was a soda marketed by Dr. Pepper as a cherry flavoured Dr. Pepper. Despite a large advertising compaign, Red Fusion was completely ignored and Dr. Pepper axed it in less than a year.

Other commercial flops
Betamax VCR system
Sony's proprietary recording technology produced a sharper picture than VHS, but initially could only record for 1 hour. Also by not licencing the Betamax format, much like Apple Computer did with their technology, they were overwhelmed in the marketplace by the many competing, licenced VHS manufacturers.

Digital Compact Cassette
A format introduced by Philips, which lost out to Minidisc and CD-R. A similarly ill-fated attempt to improve on the compact audio cassette was Sony's much earlier Elcaset system.

DIVX
DIVX was a take-off on DVD that required users to pay per viewing. DIVX backer Circuit City, a retail electronics giant, lost about $200 million over the fiasco. (Not to be confused with DivX, the video codec.)

eBook devices
Between 1999 and 2002, a number of companies, notably Gemstar, jockeyed for control of this supposedly vast, lucrative market, believing that consumers would pay hardcover prices for a severely limited number of book titles in DRM-encrypted formats that tied each electronic copy to a unique serialized hardware device. In 2002 the "eBooks are dead" meme became widespread. In 2003, Gemstar pulled the plug on its servers and Barnes and Noble ceased offering eBook content of any kind.

Apple's eWorld online service
Based on America Online's software and designed as a more modern replacement for the aging AppleLink service, eWorld lasted from June 1994 to March 1996. eWorld failed due to its high price, indifferent marketing by Apple and the rising popularity of Internet service providers at the expense of proprietary online services. In September 1995, eWorld had only 115,000 subscribers, compared with AOL's 3.5 million at the time. A promised Windows version never materialized. (Coincidentally, AOL itself had begun as "AppleLink Personal Edition" and was designed as a consumer-oriented alternative to AppleLink.)

Flexplay and ez-D
Flexplay and ez-D are "self-destructing" DVD-compatible discs, which turn black and become unplayable 48 hours after the package's seal is broken. Disney's Buena Vista announced the product in 2003 with much ballyhoo and test-marketed it in Texas. But even top-tier Disney titles such as "Pirates of the Caribbean" "didn't turn out to be an item that our customers were looking for", according to an chain of groceries in Austin, Texas that dropped the product shortly after introduction. Priced at about $7, the value proposition, compared to a DVD—0.01% of the lifetime at 50% of the cost—was apparently not compelling to consumers.

Iridium
A system of 66 satellites set up for global mobile phone service, Iridium proved to be too expensive for wide use.

Kodak disc cameras (1982–1990)
Although advanced in technology and automated-processing-friendly, its aspheric lenses could not overcome the limitations of the tiny 8x10mm negative, smaller even than the Minox. It was introduced at the same time as easy-to-use, inexpensive 35mm cameras were becoming available. People liked the cameras but hated the pictures, the graininess of which was obvious.

The Millennium Dome
A commercial and public relations disaster, it now lies empty in Greenwich in London. However, it is now being renovated as a sport and concert facility, and will be used as a venue for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Penn Central Transportation
This product of the 1968 merger of the New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad became bankrupt in 1970 and merged to become part of Conrail, a government corporation, on April 1, 1976.

Persil Power
This laundry detergent catalyst was intended to help remove tough stains from clothes. In addition to not being particularly successful in terms of sales, it proved to have corrosive effects which could easily render clothes unwearable after a few washes (due to the high amounts of manganese used in the powder).

Pregnant Barbie
This was a Barbie toy showing Barbie pregnant. But Barbie wasn't married, so Mattel thought it supported sex before marrige, and it was yanked from toy shelves nationwide.

Railtrack
Set up as the UK's rail infrastructure company as part of railway privatisation, it failed to maintain the railway network to a satisfactory standard and was implicated in a number of high profile disasters, most notably the Hatfield rail crash. The Hatfield crash led to a massive track renewal programme and the high costs led to the collapse of Railtrack's share price. It was forced into special railway administration (a form of administration) on 7 October 2001 and later sold to Network Rail. The parent group, RT Plc, went into liquidation on 18 October 2002.

Schlitz
In the early 1970s a new company president cited market research showing that most beer drinkers couldn't tell one beer from another as a reason to move to a cheaper method of brewing a leading beer. However, drinkers did believe that a beer made more cheaply tasted worse, especially when it had less head than it used to, and by the time the company went back to the old formula in 1979 the damage done was so great it had to be sold to Stroh Brewery Company three years later in the wake of a strike.

Segway HT
The Segway scooter was released among unprecendented hype as being a product that would revolutionize not only transportation, but the world. Investors expected hundreds of thousands of units to be sold, generating billions of dollars in sales in the first year. In reality, the Segway sold around only 10,000 units in its first few years and is still trying to overcome an identity crisis.

Teledesic
Bill Gates was a major investor in this proposed network of hundreds of satellites to provide Internet access.


A failure is just a proven method for how not to succeed.