Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Biggest Product Flops of 2011

MSN reports the following as the biggest product flops of the prior year. Did we fall for any of them?

1) Abercrombie & Fitch’s Ashley Push-Up Bikini. This is a bikini, designed for 8 to14-year- old girls, features a top with padding. Is this something Jon Benet would have worn?

2) Qwikster. This was Netflix’s attempt to spin off its DVD-by-mail service onto a new website, complete with increased pricing. “The company had to kill it off before it even launched.”

3) Chevy Volt. Apparently, the world is not ready to switch to electric vehicles.

4) HTC Status – a Facebook phone. “This was the first, and likely last, smartphone with a dedicated FB share button.” AT&T forgot that it is pretty easy to get on FB with most smartphones.

5) PlayBook. Launched by RIM, using a Blackberry foundation, this was another iPad competitor that didn’t measure up.

6) Fiat 500. A three-door car under 12 feet long. Hmm. Can you say clown car? Claustrophobia?

7) Mars Needs Moms. “A Disney flop of epic proportions…In the movie business, sometimes a flop is just a flop. Then there are misses so disastrous that they send signals to broad swaths of Hollywood.” Ouch! This was no Avatar. Not everything in 3-D is good.

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