Womp, womp….
2011 brought us many great products that will make our lives easier, more interactive, and more productive. Everything from Apple’s iPhone 4S with SIRI, to 3D televsions, and intuitive, touchscreen home thermostats all rank amongst the top of the best products of the year. However, there are also a whole host of products that were just terrible, non-functional, overly expensive, pieces of crap, and this post is dedicated to them.
Flip the pages to peep some of the worst of the worst…
Ashley Push-Up Triangle
Abercrombie & Fitch
The folks at A&F thought it would be a good idea to make a padded push-up bikini top for girls 8-14, unfortunately, most parents didn’t agree. Little girls don’t need to feel like they have breasts, bottom line. Lord knows there are plenty of perverts out there that don’t need any encouragement…
Qwikster
NetFlix
Everything was fine until NetFlix decided to fawk it all up. When the decision was made to separate the online-streaming and the physical DVD rental services, along with a price increase, all hell broke loose. Qwikster was supposed to be the rebranded, new and shiny way to rent DVDs but the dedicated NetFlix users weren’t feelin’ it which led the mucky-mucks to pull the plug on the idea before it even got off the ground.
Volt
General Motors
The Volt was supposed to be a way for GM to save themselves from the impending doom of a failing auto industry. The excitement for the new 100% electric car was so high in-house that GM even released it months ahead of schedule, but they overestimated the public demand. In July, only 125 of the eco-cars was sold, and to make matters worse GM is under investigation for fires that were cause due to flaws in the car’s battery…
HTC Status
AT&T and HTC
Someone thought having a phone with a dedicated Facebook button to share your every waking move with friends, families and stalkers would be appealing to younger users. That someone was wrong. Practically every phone in existence right now has an app for Facebook so there is really no strong motivation to own this phone.
Playbook
RIM (Research In Motion)
The race to compete with the ubiquitous iPad was on and poppin’ in 2011, a few tablets made a case for themselves, but the RIM (makers of BlackBerry) Playbook was NOT one of them. Terrible apps, change in consumer expectations, and price have all been excuses as to why this product has not sold well and after losing almost $500 million in discounts trying get the devices off the shelves it looks like this is one of the electronic gizmos that will go extinct in 2012.
Fiat 500
Fiat
Even Jennifer Lopez and all that big ol’ a$$ couldn’t sell American’s one of Fiat’s lil a$$ cars. Ford CEO Alan Mulally had this to say about Fiat:
“I do not see large market in the U.S.A. for a smaller car than the Fiesta. Those that tried failed.”
Call him a hater, but he hit the nail on the head. Fiat expected to sell upwards of 50,000 cars in 2011 and as of July they had sold less than 12,000.
