Every year there are lots of notable blunders that make people scratch their heads as to what the heck happened. There were no shortage of things to poke fun of in 2012, and some of these things were very public in modern media.
Let’s go over some of the most memorable bone-headed fails in the technology industry last year.
8. Playstation Vita
Sony’s Playstation Vita is the successor to its mildly-popular Playstation Portable. Seeing that tablets were starting to take over a large piece of the gaming pie, Sony put together a device that had a lot of social features, in addition to a large OLED touchscreen, hardware buttons, and wireless features.
On paper, the device looked like it could take over the portable gaming crown. The Vita was launched with lackluster sales and little enthusiasm from the gaming community. The console was a little too eager to demonstrate its new touchscreen features, and came out with games whose control schemes just didn’t work well. Some people held out to see if Sony’s first-tier franchises could save it, such as Resistance, but unfortunately the Reisistance game is one of the worst on the platform.
It still is a great and viable system, but there don’t seem to be much on the horizon that will make new buyers interested.
7. Megaupload shut down
Megaupload was a file-sharing service incorporated in Hong Kong (although based in New Zealand) that was closed down by the Department of Justice on January 19, 2012. The owners of the site were arrested for alleged copyright infringement, and $42 million worth of their assets were frozen.
Like so many other online services, the site is not responsible for the content that their subscribers use. Many of the people that used Megaupload used it to share files and media for legitimate purposes, such as Dropbox and Google Drive are used today.
It was discovered that the warrants used to arrest Megaupload employees were invalid and the United States has yet to provide evidence of copyright infringement… and yet an online empire was shut down based on accusations.
Lots more bone-headedness abounded in 2012. Read the next page…
6. Apple’s patent fights
Lots of companies are using patents as a revenue stream. There are even some companies that haven’t make any new products in the past decade, but survive on the licenses of patents they created 30 years ago.
Apple was noted a lot in the media of 2012, mostly about its patent-infringement lawsuits with Samsung. Apple alleged that Samsung stole its ideas and implemented them in their devices. The thing is: EVERY smartphone and tablet has a similar GUI interface and usability dynamics.
To make things even more ludicrous: GooPhone, a company in China blatently copied the iPhone 5 design and released it a few months before Apple, and issued many public warnings that it would sue Apple if it released the iPhone 5 (link here and here).
Legal battles are always expensive and messy, but Apple eventually lost to Samsung and was ordered to run apology ads on Apple’s website.
5. DirecTV disputes with Viacom
DirecTV started its voice as a consumer advocate to bring customers more choice. A lot of new companies start out this way and bend over backwards for the customer because they want to succeed. It’s amazing how their tunes change once the companies get big. Sony turned a blind eye to the whole “piracy” issue when they sold their first VCRs, and now they are one of the biggest advocates of copyright protection. (read more here)
It seems that DirecTV has at least one or two disputes with content providers every year. DirecTV refused to pay more to Viacom, who demanded more money. Ironically dropped G4 because the small channel would not bend to their demands.
As a result, many DirecTV subscribers were not able to watch Comedy Central, Nikelodeon, and many other Viacom-owned properties. Viacom briefly shut down all of its “free” internet streams in an attempt to force DirecTV to its terms.
4. Windows Phone
The Windows Phone 8 was released in the early part of 2012 and was touted as an improvement over Apple’s iPhone, which was (and still is) dominating the Smartphone market. The new interface was pretty, fluid, and modern. Unfortunately by the time it was released it was also outdated.
The new tile-based user interface was refreshing and simple. iPhone’s interface was pretty ubiquitous, and was the standard that most people became used to. Android had a lot of good new features, too. Microsoft came up with something completely original without taking cues from the two interfaces that were working. So Microsoft instead sat on the sidelines and planned out a completely different kind of interface.
Windows Phone 7 was suddenly scrapped in favor for the new Windows Phone 8. I even talked with several Microsoft employees (off the record). While there are lots of neat things about the new Windows Phone, they all agree that the phone is way behind in app support.
We still have three more blunders to go…
3. Facebook IPO
Facebook is the social networking site that nearly everyone is into. Facebook held its initial public offering (IPO) on May 18, 2012 and was the biggest in the history of the Internet, with a peak capitalization of $104 BILLION.
People who held Facebook stock became millionaires overnight. There was a huge frenzy in the industry.
Facebook’s share value fell dramatically over the subsequent trading days, losing nearly 50% of its value down to $20 per share. Bloomberg estimates that investors have lost over $630 million on Facebook since the IPO. Shareholders accused the head of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, of withholding crucial information about its finances, which led to more than 40 lawsuits, including a class-action lawsuit.
2. iPhone removes Google Maps
Apple’s iPhone 5 was released to much fanfare, but there was a huge fallout, even from Apple fanboys as they discovered that the once useful Google Maps (and other Google properties) were removed from the device.
Apple must have felt strongly about their new maps service, as they were willing to break a contract with Google that still had a year left on it. As technology has evolved, other map solutions (such as those on Android devices) offered turn by turn directions.
For whatever reason, Apple’s new map system just wasn’t complete, to the point of being horribly broken. iPhone users were forced to use a different map application or use Google Maps through a regular web browser.
This major Turkey left Apple open to ridicule, and tried to force the Scott Forstall, the executive in charge of the product, to apologize to the world. Scott refused, and was ultimately fired.
On the next page we reveal the biggest tech blunder of 2012…
1. Windows 8
Windows 8 was only released a few months ago, but it certainly makes our list of fails. A lot of industry analysts were calling this months ago, mainly because of the dramatic usability changes in the new operating system.
Windows 8 is looking to change how people use computers, and by that it means for force a tablet experience on users who are not using a tablet. The familiar Windows Start Button has been replaced with a craptastic Start screen, which relies on input features that are awkward to use with a typical keyboard and mouse. These features include tiles, sideways scrolling and touch features. Additionally, the usability is so different that the average person can’t figure out how to shut their PC down (read how here).
Shortly after its release, the head of Microsoft’s Windows Division, Steven Sinofsky was sumarially fired (read here). The Redmond technology giant claims this is due to a personality conflict between executives, but spearheading a titanic bungle that confuses users has to be a piece of the puzzle.
Most of the tech industry is still scratching their heads about Windows 8, and the only way that Microsoft is able to sell any copies is through OEM deals. Microsoft even slashed the price of Windows 8 to around $40 to entice the public, but so far no one is biting.
Honorable mention: Far Cry 3 story
We recently talked about this in a recent article. Far Cry 3 was one of the last games to be released in 2012, and in many ways was one of the more excellent entries of the year. It had the best graphics, solid gunplay, excellent character building, and overall highly polished. Why, oh why did Ubisoft completely miss the mark when it comes to the story? (more here)
In the gaming world we regularly accept the whole “one man army” thing, even if our hero is completely inexperienced and untrained. That’s not what I find unbelievable.
The problem is that a minor character in the story is plastered all over the cover, and that you kill him about one-third of the way in the game. To add insult to injury, you kill Vaas in a drugged-out dream sequence, and there are very ambiguous comments making you question who you are (are you the villian?).
This isn’t the only time you space out. When you finally confront the main villian, it all seems real enough but when you wake up from the final knife fight there is no explanation as to how or why the room is filled with dead soldiers. The whole thing just doesn’t make sense.
…and then you either leave the island or kill all of your friends that you’ve been trying to save the entire time?