2012 was a year where we saw a lot of ups and downs in the world of technology. We saw some of the best smartphones designed ever. The smartphones got bigger and tablets got smaller with the new advancements. But, at the same time we saw a number of slips in the world of technology. It is also the fact that one can’t just always get 100 percent right. Especially, in a market which requires innovation every time you are producing a product. Even the best in the business sometimes fail to provide such consistency. So, with keeping in minding all this we have listed top ten tech failures of the year 2012.
Apple Maps
Apple maps issue was one of the deadliest tech errors of the year. Apple at last introduced its most awaited; iPhone 5 in the year 2012. What more t removed Google maps from the phone and introduced its own maps. The maps provided a terrible time to the people; it submerged landmarks to the water bodies and showed places far away from their actual place. How terrible these maps could be realized by the fact that Apple’s CEO within few days of the launch of the Maps began to tell the consumer to not to use these maps anymore. The maps made the most terrible effect in Australia where it showed a place named as Mildura in the middle of a desert, which in actuality was far away from it. The police told about 30000 people were affected due to this particular error. In an apology provide by the CEO he said:
“At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers,” CEO Tim Cook wrote in a rare apology. “With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.
However, the apple’s iOS operating system was soon dismissed after the incident.
Facebook Stock
Facebook is probably one of the largest social media site these days and could be easily one of the most successful social media sites of 2012. When a business is doing well it’s a clear indication its stocks might also at a high. Same happened with Facebook on a day in May 2012, when everyone predicted the veteran’s stocks to raise, as it was the day of dynamic trading for the leader in the world of social media. But, it didn’t turned out to be it started on $38 ended too around $38. Furthermore, it declined by $20 in the month of September and is now around $28.
Airtime
Airtime was a web chat tool designed for video; the developer made it a perfect user app which allowed people to interact through video chatting, without any plugin or software download. But, when the tool was used at a high level conference if failed badly it crushed again and again, according to the reports. Furthermore, the chat tool was only having 10000 active users, on which expenses were $33 million, meaning $3300 per user.
Online coupons
Online coupons in the year 2012 had the greatest demise of all. Groupon the biggest of the online coupon business faced a 79 decline in its value, since it first came to the scene. Living social another online coupons business also closed its operation. The customer after all this moved their interests away from buying online coupons and believing in their business,
Nexus Q
Nexus Q is probably the phone anyone could have watched in the market. It was an android that was to be launched in June by Google, but, unfortunately Google pushed its release date back and it is not see in the market till yet. It seems Google dropped the idea of the phone because it provided the phone free to the people who pre-ordered.
Stop online piracy Act
Congress sponsored a bill on online piracy Act which could have allowed pirated content on web to be removed with ease and web to be a better place, but, web giants such as Facebook, Wikipedia, Reddit and Google. This didn’t allow the bill to be passed as high pressures were put by these veterans on governments. This particular was woeful to in relation to future of World Wide Web.
Social Discovery Apps
The app generators in 2012 produced an app which could let the people know the strangers in the nearby with similar interests and shared friends. But, what was crazy about the app was how it attracted the women to meet the stranger it messaged the women:
OK, so you know that somebody sitting in the same bar as you likes the Pixies, “Firefly,” the fantasy styling of George R.R. Martin and the Atlanta Braves. Are you really just going to start waving around your smartphone to get their attention?
Sure, they’ve got good taste. But they still might be jerks
Color
Color was an app designed by Silicon Valley, the app got $41 million from the investors even before it was launched and also declined offer from Google of a $200 million buyout. But the app turned out to be a big failure, the app got a vital complain from its users. The users said when they shared the photos they didn’t find people to share with, the app developers on the day of launch said they are
trying to overcome this fatal error. Since then the users of the app declined to 100000 starting from 1 million. The app closed down on New Year’s eve.
Zynga
Zynga is one of the most popular games on the Facebook, but it made a lay-off from Facebook in 2012 it cut-off its employees and closed its operations in many leading countries. The reason was not specified but Facebook said Zynga experienced a 20 percent downfall in its income. Zynga though bought a new game developing firm.
Twitter Twits
The 140 character bursts made the celebrities and firms crazy over twitter, fox59.com reported some of these tweets over their let’s have a look:
“• Chris Brown, the hip-hop star, consistently used Twitter to make himself look like a foul-mouthed rage monster. Instead of thanking fans after winning a Grammy, he launched a profanity-laced bromide at his “haters.” Then there were the misogynistic, scatological insults he hurled at comedian-critic Jenny Johnson before “quitting” Twitter. (He’s back.)
• McDonald’s thought it would get a little of that social media love it had been hearing about in January when it created the #McDstories hashtag — asking customers to share their favorite McDonald’s memories. Then it found out what happens when you give the Internet open access to your advertising effort. McDonald’s yanked the campaign after just two hours and countless food-horror stories about fingernails, insects and bouts of food poisoning.
• Spike Lee was, like many Twitter users, angered by the killing of Florida teen Trayvon Martin. Tweeting the home address of shooter George Zimmerman would have been questionable enough. But Lee mistakenly tweeted out the address of a couple who have a son by that name. They had to leave their home after being besieged by reporters and threats. Lee would later apologize and “reach an agreement” with the aggrieved family.
• Greek triple jumper Paraskevi Papachristou was on her way to the Olympics when she tried a little ill-advised Twitter humor. With so many African Olympians in London, “the West Nile mosquitoes will at least eat homemade food!” she wrote. Her tweet was quickly criticized as racially insensitive, and Greece’s Olympic Committee barred her from participating in the Games.
• Oprah Winfrey had been gushing for weeks about how much she loved the new Microsoft Surface tablet, culminating in this tweet: “Gotta say love that SURFACE! Have bought 12 already for Christmas gifts.” Unfortunately for her, those words were followed by … “via Twitter for iPad.”
So, twitter was consistently used wrongly by the top gun.
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