Ten biggest tech FAILS of 2012

[Dan Druff]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/28/tech/w...012/index.html

I always liked this yearly series from CNN, and unlike JibJab's end-of-the-year songs, this article doesn't go downhill over time.

Here was my favorite part:

Airtime

When the man who created Napster and helped launch Facebook talks, the tech industry listens.

And when Sean Parker and partner Shawn Fanning tease something new called Airtime, techies fall all over themselves to see what the next great innovation will be.

But then, at a fancy launch event featuring celebrities such as Alicia Keys and Snoop Dogg, Parker announces that it's ... basically, a random Web chat tool.

Cue the collective, "Huh?"

It didn't help that, at that fancy event, Airtime crashed over and over again. Or that folks had a hard time seeing how it would be different than Chatroulette (although Parker promised more users would actually be wearing pants).

In October, Parker admitted that Airtme, launched with more than $33 million in backing, had just 10,000 active users. (That's $3,300 spent per user, if you're scoring along at home.)

"Running a startup is like eating glass," he said at the All Things D conference. "You just start to like the taste of your own blood."

Ouch.

Looks like Shawn Fanning had pretty much one good idea in his lifetime, and now even simple tasks such as getting an erection are a challenge to him.

ShawnFanningsLimpDick, any comments here?

LOL @ $33 million to re-create chatroulette, which itself was created with almost zero budget by a Russian teenager.

[SrslySirius]

When it comes to innovation, I think great ideas are far less valuable than great execution. Good ideas are a dime a dozen.

[PLOL]

I think the over 4.5 million Grindr users would disagree that Grindr is a fail.

[Dan Druff]

When it comes to innovation, I think great ideas are far less valuable than great execution. Good ideas are a dime a dozen.

There's also a lot of luck involved.

So many people and companies have wasted money backing tech startups that "sound promising", but most of that money ends up down a rathole.

They are encouraged by the Myspaces, Facebooks, and Twitters, but forget that the vast, vast majority blow through the entire investment and close.

[Bootsy Collins]

For me it's between Apple Maps vs Yahoo during 2012. HP also had a horrendous year in consumer and business products.

I expect servers and server product sales will continue to fall since businesses are consolidating servers and migrating to virtual platforms. This will also include networking products, server racks.

[SrslySirius]

For me it's between Apple Maps vs Yahoo during 2012. HP also had a horrendous year in consumer and business products.

Did Yahoo fail at anything specific, or just continue to lose market share as a search engine?

[Bootsy Collins]

For me it's between Apple Maps vs Yahoo during 2012. HP also had a horrendous year in consumer and business products.

Did Yahoo fail at anything specific, or just continue to lose market share as a search engine?

Yahoo as a company has completely failed, specifically by shitting the bed thinking that they would be bought out by Microsoft.

[DRK Star]

*relieved to see bracket geek isnt on this list*

[SrslySirius]

Perhaps not worthy of making the list, but I just saw that Instagram has lost 25% of its users since that controversial policy change. Yikes.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/busines...iXBIJRE1rCOyML

[DirtyB]

Perhaps not worthy of making the list, but I just saw that Instagram has lost 25% of its users since that controversial policy change. Yikes.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/busines...iXBIJRE1rCOyML

Cherry picked, bullshit statistics.

http://mashable.com/2012/12/28/instagram-users-risk/

[Tiny]

When it comes to innovation, I think great ideas are far less valuable than great execution. Good ideas are a dime a dozen.

I think I get what you're saying but good or great ideas are not a dime a dozen. Sure a lot of of good ideas are wasted but great execution of a bad idea won't turn it into a good idea or effort.

[Crowe Diddly]

Surprised neither DD nor Tyde made this list.

[PLOL]

Surprised neither DD nor Tyde made this list.

#11 and #12 imo

[SrslySirius]

When it comes to innovation, I think great ideas are far less valuable than great execution. Good ideas are a dime a dozen.

I think I get what you're saying but good or great ideas are not a dime a dozen. Sure a lot of of good ideas are wasted but great execution of a bad idea won't turn it into a good idea or effort.

The world is full of "idea guys". Most of them have no skills or talents. Many of them do have great ideas, some have brilliant ones, but they seem to think that they hold some high inherent value. They're very protective of these golden ideas, and will make you sign a NDA before sharing any details with you.

Web designers and developers are very familiar with idea guys. They hear great ideas all the time, and get offered a cut of profits rather than actual payment for the work. They get very tired of receiving calls and e-mails from idea guys.

Million dollar ideas. Billion dollar ideas. There really is no such thing. I have some ideas in my head that could make you very rich, if you have the resources and execute well. How much would you like to pay for one? Do you know any angel investors or executives in the business of buying ideas? I could use a new house.

[WillieMcFML]

I think I get what you're saying but good or great ideas are not a dime a dozen. Sure a lot of of good ideas are wasted but great execution of a bad idea won't turn it into a good idea or effort.

The world is full of "idea guys". Most of them have no skills or talents. Many of them do have great ideas, some have brilliant ones, but they seem to think that they hold some high inherent value. They're very protective of these golden ideas, and will make you sign a NDA before sharing any details with you.

Web designers and developers are very familiar with idea guys. They hear great ideas all the time, and get offered a cut of profits rather than actual payment for the work. They get very tired of receiving calls and e-mails from idea guys.

Million dollar ideas. Billion dollar ideas. There really is no such thing. I have some ideas in my head that could make you very rich, if you have the resources and execute well. How much would you like to pay for one? Do you know any angel investors or executives in the business of buying ideas? I could use a new house.

go easy on micon bro, he's about to be a father

[SrslySirius]

go easy on micon bro, he's about to be a father

[Walter Sobchak]

Did Yahoo fail at anything specific, or just continue to lose market share as a search engine?

Yahoo as a company has completely failed, specifically by shitting the bed thinking that they would be bought out by Microsoft.

Didn't Microsoft make them an offer which they rejected because they said it wasn't enough?

[v12cl]

I think I get what you're saying but good or great ideas are not a dime a dozen. Sure a lot of of good ideas are wasted but great execution of a bad idea won't turn it into a good idea or effort.

The world is full of "idea guys". Most of them have no skills or talents. Many of them do have great ideas, some have brilliant ones, but they seem to think that they hold some high inherent value. They're very protective of these golden ideas, and will make you sign a NDA before sharing any details with you.

Web designers and developers are very familiar with idea guys. They hear great ideas all the time, and get offered a cut of profits rather than actual payment for the work. They get very tired of receiving calls and e-mails from idea guys.

Million dollar ideas. Billion dollar ideas. There really is no such thing. I have some ideas in my head that could make you very rich, if you have the resources and execute well. How much would you like to pay for one? Do you know any angel investors or executives in the business of buying ideas? I could use a new house.

This exactly.

Spent a few years building a web design/Internet marketing business from the ground up with (FOR) an "idea guy", while he tried to raise money for his great "idea" which he had no idea how to actually execute.

Investors are only going to throw money down if you have the skills to bring the idea to fruition, have built your company with people who do, or are a big name.

Giving a brand new business 30 million to build a company sounds like a very bad idea, when you could give a 1/30th of that to help an existing and growing business expand imo. The upside might not be in the billions, but sustainability and long term jobs depend on it. Start ups without start power fight and claw their way to build a prototype on limited funds, while guys like Shawn Fanning walk in, suck the right dicks, and get handed 30 million. It's very synonymous with the nosebleeds.

Bottom line is, angel investors/start up culture is full of idea guys that are really good at convincing other people to give them money or work for free. You should see the work that went towards my company's "idea" with an engineer (who is a fucking stud and makes 175k now) who was promised 6k per month (to build a product that would take months before it could be sold) by the "idea guy" who had about 8k in the bank, and a web design business he had no idea or desire to run himself. Now that kid is broke is chasing his next idea, and the client all left and came with me, and he had no idea even how to change the passwords on his server. Sweet brag I know, but a good example of how important execution is, but also how far an idea must progress towards making money.