The L.A. Times Names Its Favorite Flops of the Year

SternisheFan writes "Salvador Rodriguez and Deborah Netburn of The Los Angeles Times have a rundown of the top 10 tech gaffes of 2012. From their article: 'As 2012 comes to a close we take a look back at the biggest "oops" moments of the last year. Whether it was an advertising misstep (Facebook's "Chair" commercial), or a product released before it was ready (Apple Maps), or just an idea that was ill-received (homeless men as Wi-Fi hotspots), we tried to compose a list of the times when the major players lost control of the narrative. It's also a reminder that everyone makes mistakes--even exacting tech companies.'"

Comments

Samsung 'Puppy' Video

[adibe]

So where can I find the video described at #10?

Facebook IPO

[Bizzeh]

Facebook IPO wasnt a gaffe, it was a hedge fund scam. facebook was advised to give their IPO at a much higher value than they knew it could sustain, and the advisers hedged against facebook. made a lot of rich people richer, and fucked over some other rich people, and also fucked over some not so rich people.

as for apple maps, that deserves to be number 1, why the hell did apple even bother to release such a poor piece of software...

Re:Facebook IPO

[UnknowingFool]

Um, Apple Maps fiasco wasn't about the software. The software works fine; the data behind the software is the problem. Google maps also had issues in the beginning until they spent lots of time and money on better data. Remember the war driving scandal with Google? That was when their mapping cars were found to be collecting Wifi data in addition to simply mapping streets. Maybe Apple should have relied on Google map data for another year (as they still had a year left on their contract) but the software was fine.

Re:Facebook IPO

[AliasMarlowe]

Um, Apple Maps fiasco wasn't about the software. The software works fine; the data behind the software is the problem.

So you agree with GP even as you try to contradict him/her. The software was the problem. Hint: software is more than just an algorithm expressed in a program; it's the data that the algorithm/program accesses, too.

Re:Facebook IPO

[Concerned Onlooker]

Yes, the initial Apple maps was a bit of a black eye. But the response to it was amazing. From the headlines I was sure that the civilized world was coming to an end. Cats and dogs sleeping together, etc.

Re:Facebook IPO

[Dogtanian]

Facebook IPO wasnt a gaffe, it was a hedge fund scam. facebook was advised to give their IPO at a much higher value than they knew it could sustain, and the advisers hedged against facebook. made a lot of rich people richer, and fucked over some other rich people, and also fucked over some not so rich people.

Well, this is what gets me about the "Facebook IPO was a failure" argument. An IPO takes place for the benefit of the existing investors and stakeholders, whether or not that happens to be at the expense of anyone buying in.

Of course, normally one has to convince the would-be investors that it's also in *their* interest to do so, and obviously if you can be shown to have actually defrauded them, then that might not work out so well for you. But that doesn't change the basic principle- the people organising the IPO are doing so to benefit the existing stakeholders. From that somewhat amoral (but truthful) point of view, the Facebook IPO was a roaring success- for them.

Re:Facebook IPO

[ColdWetDog]

From the standpoint of the end user - the 99% - Apple maps is the problem. Yes, we can tease it out into more subtle nuances but as far as the person staring at the screen it was an APPLE mistake. It was hubris, plain and simple. They certainly could have waited another year until they were ready but they didn't.

So they got dinged, some heads rolled and the world continued. It's a pure Apple play. Roll out crap in the beginning, get it running sooner or later. Cf, OS X, iTunes (OK, the STILL haven't got it right), Final Cut X, the iPhone and pretty much any Rev. 1 bit of Apple hardware. Where ever they get the idea that 'it just works' is quite beyond me. Hell, and I even like Apple stuff, I just know not to buy it when it first comes out and not to install software before the x.3 version.

Re:Facebook IPO

[hairyfeet]

Meh the list sucks, no Lumia, no Surface, no Windows 8. When you look at how much money has been shat right down the drain launching those 3 products its just insanity and its pretty much agreed by most that all 3 are megabombs. Just look at the figures of the Surface, as low as 500k after massive advertising and with Windows 8 the finger pointing has begun with OEMs coming out of the woodwork to say Win 8 is a poor product (the latest is Fujitsu, I'd provide a link but its on Yahoo Finance which creates insanely long URLs) and Ballmer proving he's not afraid to go full retard by basically giving the finger to the OEMs and deciding to make overpriced laptops, phones, and desktops so that if anybody doubted Ballmer's MSFT was just a poorly built Apple those doubts are over.

I don't see how this could be anything but the #1 spot, we are talking billions of dollars wasted on products nobody wanted, retailers can't move the things and in fact the sales from Oct-Dec were down 13% over the same period last year and so far every indication is its Win 8 that kept those shoppers away, we are talking HP buying Palm levels of uberfail here folks. I believe history will look back on this and say this was when we saw that marketing droids simply can't shovel overpriced shit down the throats of consumers and get them to buy based on nothing but flashy ads, because 4 billion in flashy ads couldn't keep Lumia and Win 8 from being another Vista. Talk about a trainwreck, this deserves the "WTF were they thinking?" award of 2012, no competition came even close to this level of fail.

Re:Facebook IPO

[iserlohn]

By all accounts, Google was not *allowed* by Apple to release a version of Google Maps that was Google branded. Google was willing to compromise by offering a non-branded version that collected more information from iOS users than Apple would like to allow. That was the impasse that led Apple's ill fated venture into GIS.

Re:Facebook IPO

[DrgnDancer]

Indeed, the greatest success of Apple Maps was getting Google to finally release a function version of Google Maps for the iPhone. It's so much better than the service I used to use for turn by turn directions.

Re:Facebook IPO

[Teun]

Uhhh, Apple contracted TomTom for the maps where they work fine, it really was Apple's software that doesn't know what to do with the maps.

Re:Facebook IPO

[Terrasque]

Where ever they get the idea that 'it just works' is quite beyond me.

Lots and lots of PR money. And IMHO a brilliant move. You see, computers are hard. Everyone knows computers are hard. And if something happens, you can't do anything, because everyone knows computers are hard.

But then comes something different. Something that is EASY. They say it everywhere. It just works, and is easy to use! So when something happens, it can't be that difficult to get it working, surely? This is after all easy.

The difference it makes is that in first scenario people give up at once, without even trying. In the second, they try their best because it's after all supposed to be easy.

And it turns out, that when you actually try to solve the problem, then it actually is easy to get it working again (compared to giving up at once and not even trying, at least).

It just works, and is easy because they tell people it is so. Pure genius :)

Re:Facebook IPO

[Bizzeh]

The response was justified, apple took away what most people use as their GPS device, and replaced it with one that doesnt work, and doesnt work in spectacular fashion.

Re:Facebook IPO

[guruevi]

The thing is, Apple used the data from a 'reputable' vendor (TomTom). Nobody made any noise ever about stand-alone TomTom devices.

Where I am and in most other places (North America and Europe), the data is as good as any (Google, Garmin, OSM or others) and you can find mistakes on any maps, heck, if there is a mistake in the data for any of the above mentioned, blame the government(s) because they are the ones that release the vector data for all streets in their jurisdictions. The biggest problems with it seem to be in Asia where government data isn't all that accurate.

That's talking about actual map data (the thing that may get you lost). There is a lot more POI data that Apple Maps is either missing or inaccurate and that is directly due to the TomTom data. I also have a Garmin device personally and the POI data is even worse than either the TomTom device or the Apple device, again, nobody has complained about that in years because the address (instead of the POI) usually gets you to the right place and who uses that silly POI data anyway?

Why is the POI data so inaccurate? Because most of it is gleaned from mobile devices with very inaccurate GPS data. For that you can blame all non-iOS and non-Android devices (and even some very cheap Android devices). Symbian and Blackberry both had major issues with the GPS coordinates and when those are then passed through apps to things like Yelp (which resells to the GPS vendors), hilarity ensues.

Re:Facebook IPO

[hairyfeet]

Thanks as you just PERFECTLY illustrated the problem with Ballmer's MSFT! Ballmer has it in his head that the ONLY difference between a Walmart brand and a Macy's brand is the price, while being completely fucking clueless that for a brand like Apple it literally took decades to build up the brand identity and get the products perceived the way the are. A perfect example of the "Ballmer Disconnect" is this little gem from earlier this year when it was announced they were pulling the plug on Windows Home Server "We have all those features in Windows SBS now so its not that we are leaving the market, I'm sure everyone will just switch to SBS"...hmmm...lets look at the numbers, shall we? Windows Home Server? $40, and that's OEM retail price, more like $25 to the OEMs themselves. Windows SBS? $400!!!! And that is for the OEMs!

This is why the Ballmer reign is gonna go down as a bigger disaster than the Pepsi guy at Apple, because while the Pepsi guy simply pout out too many similar products with price points all over the place Ballmer thinks he can slap a paintjob on a Pinto and it will magically compete with a Porsche. You see Windows 8 and Surface is NOT MADE FOR YOU the consumer, nope its made for WALL STREET, to please the stock jockies that love to see high prices as an indicator of a high end product. But that doesn't work if nobody buys the product and the consumer doesn't consider the brand worth the money, it would be like raising the price of coke to 1 million dollars for a 2 liter. Sure if they manage to sell one they make plenty of profits but when you look at the lost sales and the warehouses full of rapidly expiring products (because just like Cola PCs have a shelf life, nobody is gonna want to buy the old chips when the new chips come out, not without STEEP discounts) they end up losing their shirts. This is the exact same thing that Ballmer is doing and if you'll look at the last link he is going "full retard" by putting MSFT into the hardware business, selling grossly overpriced laptops and desktops as well...why? Well that what Apple does isn't it?

If your customers won't buy the product as it is jacking the price 50% isn't gonna make it more valuable, its gonna torpedo it. Instead of cutting the shit out of the prices so they could get people to use Metro and the new Windows design they jacked the living shit out of prices (higher than an iPad? Are you shitting me?) and he is gonna fucking kill the company. I think the only real hope MSFT has is if the board quits smoking weed and fires Ballmer's fat ass and brings in one of the old guard, since Gates won't come back I'd try to get Allchin or Ozzie, and have them LISTEN TO THE CONSUMER and put out products that people want, not what Wall Street wants to hear.

This is why I think Lumia, Surface and Win 8 deserve the top spot, as its a multi-billion dollar disaster that is a perfect illustration of Wall Street and Madison Avenue thinking over common sense.

Re:Facebook IPO

[Kielistic]

And the rest of Slashdot assumes you would understand that the rest of the world is talking about the software product, not the source code we can't see anyway. It doesn't matter if the data or the software sucks. The end product apparently sucked. Without the ability to audit the code myself I'll just assume they both sucked. You are off on tangents that don't make sense. If Java was horrible (I, personally, think it is) what makes it horrible only matter to the person fixing it. It's just Apple, you don't have to defend them, they'll be alright.

Re:Facebook IPO

[Kielistic]

Or they rewrote a good chunk of the core code to work with their new dataset and to implement their desired features. You have no idea what the source is like. But it still does not matter. Saying how great the codebase is (despite the fact that you have no idea) doesn't stop the product from being shoddy.

Re:Facebook IPO

[fostware]

A perfect example of the "Ballmer Disconnect" is this little gem from earlier this year when it was announced they were pulling the plug on Windows Home Server "We have all those features in Windows SBS now so its not that we are leaving the market, I'm sure everyone will just switch to SBS"...hmmm...lets look at the numbers, shall we? Windows Home Server? $40, and that's OEM retail price, more like $25 to the OEMs themselves. Windows SBS? $400!!!! And that is for the OEMs!

And to further rub salt into the wounds, they knobbled SBS like Apple knobbled OS X Server. For example, there's no in-house email in SBS 2012 or OS X Server 10.7+
This forum post has a good comparison of licensing SBS 2011 over 2012
In fact, compare the feature sets of previous versions and current versions of these two Server OSs and it's all about extracting recurring income through cloud dependence.

Re:Facebook IPO

[hairyfeet]

Again another example of the "Ballmer disconnect", push products people don't want and prices they won't pay, push "buzzwords" like cloud and then make them completely undesirable with retarded prices and licensing schemas designed not to let the customer buy what they need but to wring every last cent out of every property, and then be SHOCKED! Shocked i tell you, when the stock tanks and the products go down in flames.

Mark my words fostware, if they don't give Ballmer's fat ass a good kicking the next 3 years are gonna make the past "lost decade" look like the release of Win95, he is practically destroying every business they have left in a foolish delusion that high prices = Apple market. they are fucking their OEMs who I have NO doubt are in talks with Google right now about what features they need the ChromeOS to have to push it over Windows, they are fucking the living hell out of SMBs and enterprise with crazy prices and trying to shove everything into SaaS so many of them will also be talking to Google about an exit strategy to get away from this mess, and they are fucking the consumer by trying to push overpriced shit the consumer doesn't want so Apple and Google will be taking a good chunk of THAT market as well.

Frankly not since RIM have I seen a company that had so much going for it stick a gun to its own head and kill itself so completely. Look up "Windows Blue" to see Ballmer's full retard roadmap for the next 5 years, hell they might as well have called it "See what Apple is doing? We're just gonna ape that but shitty and half baked" for all the good its gonna do. For fuck's sake MSFT give ME the job and I'll right the fucking ship in less than 3 years or you won't owe me a fucking dime!

Re:Facebook IPO

[Patch86]

"Software" and "Data used by software" is a bit of a false distinction to most users. If the data is crap, the whole software package becomes crap. If Google's search engine was the best piece of software in the world, but the data was so crap that it couldn't return any results you actually wanted, then you would not be praising Google's search engine.

The fact that Google's mapping software wasn't very good 10 years ago is hardly relevant. Nor is the WiFi scandal, unless you're suggesting that either Apple Inc. or iPhone users are feeling inclined to boycott Google on moral grounds. The fact is that Apple (seller of expensive, top of class premium devices) removed a polished and much loved piece of software from their phones and replaced it with something broken, unsatisfactory and not fit for prime time. And those phones cost £570 each.

Re:Facebook IPO

[AmiMoJo]

The reason people don't complain (much) about TomTom data on other devices is because TomTom know the limitations and deficiencies of it and don't try to implement features that go beyond it's capabilities. For example TomTom's maps don't overlay with satellite data well, not least because a normal GPS receiver just isn't that accurate and official sources of road data are not either. Google automatically corrects the vectors to match the satellite imagery, so they are always in perfect sync.

POI databases are curated by TomTom themselves, with some very limited user input. Google's database is much better because they can tie it up with web data and with Street View data. If you ask to go to house number 33 in a road they know exactly where it is because their image recognition software read the number off the front door. They know where shops are because of the building numbers and signs visible from the street.

I think Apple will inevitably have to develop their own version of Street View, or find someone else replicating it and buy the data from them. Then they will have to develop all the advanced processing Google has, and start crawling the web or do a tie up with some search engine to link everything up. It is going to take them years.

Seriously?

[Anonymous Coward]

They manage to not put Windows 8 on that list? It deserves the top spot by far. And I say this as a C# dev!

Re:Seriously?

[vux984]

He's not complaining about C#. He's saying he thinks windows 8 is a flop, and that because he is a c# developer we should believe he is normally at least somewhat pro-windows.

for what its worth, i don't think windows 8 is a flop although I do think they botched the launch pretty badly in a variety of ways. (And there is no question that the windows 8 desktop has some issues to address; i just don't think they are nearly as bad as the hype.)

Re:Seriously?

[Bizzeh]

sorry, mis-read. Windows 8 i wouldnt say is a flop, its a flop in waiting, or a success in waiting. its too early to tell as of yet if it will or will not be a flop as its market share is still increasing. http://betanews.com/2012/12/03/like-it-or-not-windows-8-usage-rises/, its also increasing pretty quickly.

Re:Seriously?

[Terrasque]

* Windows 8 isn't that bad.
* Apple Maps isn't that bad.
* The iPhone 4 antenna was not that bad.
* That terrible patent you just heard about isn't that bad.
* The internet always lies to you.

* You read that list on the internet.

How about the Vita?

[Stormwatch]

Okay, its japanese release was in december last year, but I think it still counts. Darn thing can't even outsell the PSP!

Designed for browsing on a phone

[tuppe666]

There is no shortage of these lists.
International Buisness Times http://www.ibtimes.com/biggest-tech-flops-2012-top-5-failures-facebook-ipo-microsoft-surface-977488
Think Digit http://www.thinkdigit.com/General/The-5-biggest-tech-failures-of-2012_11866.html
Read Write http://readwrite.com/2012/12/14/top-10-epic-tech-gadget-failures ...
Why pick the one that is designed for a tablet..or one that doesn't mention Windows 8; Windows Phone 8...or Surface.

Re:Why are we linking to the LA Times?

[SternisheFan]

1. Apple Maps fiasco How bad was it when Apple replaced Google Maps with its own mapping system on iOS 6? Well, a Tumblr blog showing Apple Maps' biggest fails emerged days after the release, and Apple chief executive Tim Cook issued an apology and suggested iOS 6 users download alternate mapping tools. Then in December, Australian police accused Apple Maps of stranding motorists in a national park, shaming the company once again.

2. Path privacy breach It all started when Arun Thampi, a programmer in Singapore, blogged that the app for the social network Path was downloading his entire address book—including names, emaill addresses, and phone numbers--without asking his permission. The tech blogs took the story and ran with it, and before long, Path had a major publicity issue on its hands. Eventually, company founder Dave Morin issued an apology, and updated the app so users can opt in or out of sharing their contact list.

3. Facebook IPO When Facebook went public in May, many people bought its stock thinking they’d strike it rich quick. Many thought the IPO would be the most successful since Google went public in 2004. After a few hours of gains, the stock slide back to its opening price, but concerns over Facebook’s position on the mobile platform kept the slide going for going for the next few months.

The stock seems to have finally stabilized and has made gains since bottoming out, but it’s still more than $10 below its $38 opening day price. 4. Nokia's fake photos Nokia impressed quite a few people when it announced its latest flagship phone the Lumia 920 in September. Specifically, a Web ad showing the phone’s video recording and night-photographing capabilities made the Lumia 920 noteworthy. Unfortunately, Nokia’s positive press coverage went away when it was discovered the footage and photos used in the ad were not actually taken by the phone. In the end, Nokia had to issue an apology and label the video as a simulation.

4. Nokia's fake photos Nokia impressed quite a few people when it announced its latest flagship phone the Lumia 920 in September. Specifically, a Web ad showing the phone’s video recording and night-photographing capabilities made the Lumia 920 noteworthy. Unfortunately, Nokia’s positive press coverage went away when it was discovered the footage and photos used in the ad were not actually taken by the phone. In the end, Nokia had to issue an apology and label the video as a simulation.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/27/tech/web/top-tech-stories-2012/

Re:Why are we linking to the LA Times?

[SternisheFan]

5. Instagram Instagram felt the wrath of its user base after announcing new terms of service that said the social network could let companies pay to use people’s photos for ads that would run within Instagram. That angered a lot of the service’s users, who began threatening to leave Instagram and take their photos with rival apps. Within days, Instagram caved to users’ demands and reverted back to its older terms of service.

6. Research In Motion The last year has been a tough one in general for Research In Motion, filled with plenty of embarrassments. For starters, the company failed to deliver on its goal of releasing BlackBerry 10, the next version of its mobile operating system, before the year’s end and delayed the software multiple times. So what did the Canadian company do to keep developers from leaving? It gathered several senior executives for an embarrassing cover of REO Speedwagon’s “Keep on Loving You,” with words changed to entice developers not to lose faith on the BlackBerry platform. Then, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins and a company vice president were spotted at a Lakers game with what were believed to be new BlackBerry 10 phones. It seemed the CEO was making a sneaky attempt at getting some free shots of his upcoming device in the press.

7. Oprah’s Surface tweet The Microsoft Surface got one of the best endorsements any product can get when Oprah Winfrey tweeted about how much she loved the tablet and had already bought 12 of them as holiday gifts. Unfortunately for Microsoft, though, it was quickly discovered that Oprah sent the tweet using an iPad. The embarrassing endorsement, though probably still helpful, highlighted the biggest issue about the product: its lack of apps, including a Twitter app. 8. The Facebook chair: In October, Facebook announced it had reached 1 billion monthly users. To celebrate, the company released its first ad, comparing Facebook to.chairs. “Chairs are for people,” a heartfelt voice over tell us, “and that is why chairs are like Facebook.” The toilet-themed parody was inevitable and swift. After all, toilets are for people too. 9. Homeless people as Wi-Fi hotspots: It's hard to imagine how anyone at BBH Labs thought that using homeless people as Wi-Fi hotspots at SXSW was a good idea, but it happened, and it got a lot of attention. Wired wrote that it sounds "like something out of a darkly satirical science fiction dystopia" but BBH Labs called it "a charitable experiment." 10. Samsung's killing puppies commercial: If you blinked, you missed it, but for a few hours in November, Samsung was running a commercial that showed people beating on computers cutely animated with puppy dog eyes, ears, and tails. The commercial for SSD 840--a flash drive--was quickly taken down. But those of us who saw it, wish we hadn't.

Re:Why are we linking to the LA Times?

[MrHanky]

So the major tech gaffes of the year, according to the LA Times, are mainly advertising fiascos.

Apple Maps - what went wrong

[Animats]

The consensus in the SEO industry is that Apple bought all low-end data sources for business data. Somebody thought they were saving money.

Point-of-interest map data wasn't that great, either, so presumably Apple bought low-end data there, too. Map data cleanup is expensive and labor-intensive. Because business info isn't a substantial revenue generator for Apple, it's not surprising that Apple cut costs there. Over at Apple, business info drives search and ads, so it's crucial to the revenue stream.

The reverse is true for phones and tablets - Apple makes most of their money from phones and tablets, while for Google the whole Android thing generates a small fraction of revenue.

Missing -- Knight

[istartedi]

They should have Knight Capital on the list. They probably thought it belonged in the finance category as opposed to tech; but it was a tech problem. They also could have put HFT in general on the list, of which Knight is just one example.

Re:No Dice

[Andrewkov]

But this list is for 2012..