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25 Years of Tech Blunders

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25 Years of Tech Blunders

Back in the ‘50s, the Edsel seemed like such a good idea. Alas, the car was a fairly expensive gas-guzzler released just as the country was entering a recession, and became one of the most costly blunders in the history of the car industry. In the last 25 years, many technology companies have continued the tradition of ill-timed, useless and just plain bad “innovation.” In honor of the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, we’ve compiled a list:

Back in the ‘50s, the Edsel seemed like such a good idea. Alas, the car was a fairly expensive gas-guzzler released just as the country was entering a recession, and became one of the most costly blunders in the history of the car industry. In the last 25 years, many technology companies have continued the tradition of ill-timed, useless and just plain bad “innovation.” In honor of the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, we’ve compiled a list:

IBM PCjr (1984-1985)

It was supposed to be a cheap PC, but the machine didn’t run much of the software used on a typical PC. The PCjr’s chiclet keyboard was also roundly criticized. Even worse, the machine was the most expensive in its category, and its limited expansion capabilities doomed it for business use. Interesting idea, but bad execution killed the machine little more than a year later.

It was supposed to be a cheap PC, but the machine didn’t run much of the software used on a typical PC. The PCjr’s chiclet keyboard also was roundly criticized. Even worse, the machine was the most expensive in its category, and its limited expansion capabilities doomed it for business use. Interesting idea, but bad execution killed the machine little more than a year later.

Photo Credit: Thom Cochrane