Monday, August 22, 2011

Gone in Sixty Seconds: The Shortest-Lived Tech Products Ever

Gone in Sixty Seconds: The Shortest-Lived Tech Products Ever, article.

Clearly I was not the only one struck by the short life of the Touchpad.

General consensus is that the Microsoft Kin phone deserved to die, but that it was a pity about the Touchpad, and especially the Web OS, which now is not very likely to survive and flower. Though some think it's a big opening for other companies to use it, and that Motorola may end up being the only company sticking with Android (Because Apple is suing Samsung for look-and-feel rip-off). That would be nice for Web OS and for variety, but changing operating system completely is not exactly cheap, or easy, or popular with consumers, so I really doubt it'll happen.

1 comment:

Bruce said...

That was an interesting article. Even the comments were entertaining, with people bringing up more products that failed quickly.

Shortly before HP bought Palm, one of the lead WebOS designers left and went to Google to work on Android. I bet he's happy he made that move now.

"Motorola may end up being the only company sticking with Android (Because Apple..."

Another reason is that Google will probably favor Motorola over Samsung, HTC, LG, etc. How can they help but do so? I know that it's theoretically possible for Google to set up an organizational structure that's fair, but still, people are human...

The current, what I would now call second tier Android manufacturers are committed for the holiday sales season. That is when they make all of their profits. The devices have been designed and are being cranked out in quantity right now.

If any of these companies decide to abandon Android, they would be very smart to keep it quiet until after the holidays, when they have sold their current models and made what profits they can.