Things don't always work out the way you had them planned. Without further ado, here are ten such examples from last year's dishonour roll.
1. HP TouchPadSales took off when HP crunched the tablet's price after killing it. With hindsight, now that that the outrage over its termination has died down, we have to say the tablet was good, but not
that good. It was too beefy, did not have a 3G option and its awesome battery charger was optional rather than standard with the package. Still, the issues could have been improved in version 2.
2. HP webOSGreat tablet OS but under previous CEO Leo Apotheker HP no longer wanted to be in tablets (or in most hardware, for that matter). Under new boss Meg Whitman has decided to open source webOS, which is amazing when you consider that HP paid US$1.2 billion for it earlier, when it acquired Palm. Samsung should buy it.
3. BlackBerry crashFailed RIM router killed internet access for days in Europe, the Middle East and USA. And that was the good news. RIM's share price has collapsed to the point where some of the major shareholders want the blood of the co-founders and co-CEOs, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis. The only thing which will appease the shareholders appears to be a sale, hence the shopping around of RIM to various potential buyers, from Amazon to Samsung. So what happened? RIM got too cosy in its earlier success selling a communications device to corporations and didn't notice that the iPhone and Android devices were starting to leave its Blackberries behind in several areas, from UIs to app store numbers, and were also encroaching into the enterprise space because those who use an iPhone at home also want to use it at work.
4. Duke Nukem ForeverBombed. Crass, filthy and barely playable first-person shooter. Nothing more to be said. Good riddance. A lot of material in gaming these days is crap, but this took tasteless and questionable to new heights. The danger is that it might hang around as a cult game because it's so bad.
5. Google Wave & BuzzSince these two were shut, Google has closed more services, like its web photo app Piknik. But these aren't fails. They are part of Google's machinery of success. Google succeeds because it’s prepared to try endless numbers of new things and is ruthless about killing them if they don't work.
6. MeeGo OSAbandoned after appearing on just one smartphone, the Nokia N9. But may resurface as Tizen, a derivative OS which is now rumoured to be back in play in a partnership with Samsung's feature phone OS Bada.
7. Alienware MX11 laptopsBroken hinges and screens popping marred many of these desirable gaming laptops.
8. Final Cut Studio XOutcry at the radical redesign forced Apple to keep selling previous version, but the new Final Cut Studio X has so angered many videomakers that several are switching platforms, with Avid being one of the main beneficiaries.
9. Dell Streak 55in tablet phone never sold like Dell wanted and was killed. Yet the Samsung Galaxy Note, which is getting plenty of acclaim, is pretty similar in concept.
10. Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1Not a fail per se, but being banned by the courts in Australia for so long took the wind out of its sales (ahem). Its successor will be the one to watch.
