December 12, 2014: Technology (and technology companies) can delight and surprise us, but 2014 had its share of major disappointments as well. Here are five major tech disappointments of the past twelve months.
Uber (“Unter alles”). Uber — the great disrupter of taxicab cartels across the world — had its own Pinky and the Brain-style master plan to rule the world disrupted in 2014 due to a combination of executive stupidity, failure to respect local laws, snooping on its passengers, and what may be criminally culpable negligence when vetting its drivers. Look, I’m no fan of the taxi industry, especially in New York. I’ve been seriously injured while riding in cabs, threatened by drivers, and nearly run down by cabs more times than I care to count. But Uber — which just a few months ago seemed to offer a solution — has so many problems of its own that its $40 billion valuation appears highly questionable today.
Matt Cutts’ Departure (“Don’t let the doorway page hit you on your way out”). Matt Cutts never had an easy job serving as Google’s anti-spam chief, especially after Google began aggressively going after black hat SEOs in 2011 with its Panda and Penguin algorithms. Cutts — the only human face representing Google’s anti-spam offensive — was forced to bear much wrath, ridicule, and vilification from SEOs as a result. In July of 2014, Cutts announced that he was taking a sabbatical from Google, and some speculate that he will never return. Cutts will be missed; he was intelligent, affable, and seemed genuinely interested in guiding people away from the siren call of spam. Whoever replaces him (if Google decides that an air-breathing human is required to fill the post) will have big shoes to fill and need nerves of steel to prevail.
Amazon’s Fire Phone (“Wall Street on line 2”). Amazon has had a tough 2014 (currently its stock is down 22 percent for the year) and while its customers still love the service, they weren’t enamored enough with Amazon’s much-hyped $449.00 Fire Phone to actually buy it (the Fire Phone is currently retailing for $0.99 with a standard AT&T contract). And while Jeff Bezos doesn’t seem overly concerned (“I’ve made billions of dollars of failures at Amazon.com,” he told Henry Blodgett), it remains to be seen whether Amazon’s investors will accept “embrace failure” as the e-tail giant’s new corporate mantra.
Ello (“Is there anyone out there?”). Ello was positioned by the major media as a haven where folks could socialize without being spied on by marketers. While it’s refreshing that a social network had the courage to stand up and differentiate itself in this way, Ello remains a lonely place for most participants (in the past two months I’ve had exactly one interaction.) Whatever the future of social networks is, it’s got to be more than simply watching tumbleweeds blow by. Unless things change soon, Ello is doomed to be the Cuil.com of social networks.
Google Glass (“One-eyed jerks”). Google Glass’ “explorers” have had a rough year. They’ve been shunned, banned, mugged, and ridiculed, and the $1,500 device itself has been found to partially obstruct peripheral vision, which is no joke if you’re a motorist (“visual field testing demonstrated significant scotomas (blind spots) in all 3 participants while wearing the device, creating a clinically meaningful visual field obstruction in the upper right quadrant.”) And despite a last-ditch effort by Diane Von Furstenberg to eliminate their “dorkiness factor,” Glass never became a must-have item among the digirati (even Wired — the most reflexively pro-gizmo publication in the world, recently opined that “The Only Way to Save Google Glass Is to Kill It“).
- 10 Mistakes to Avoid When Using QR Codes for Marketing - September 20, 2023
- Kevin Lee on How AI Changes the SEO Landscape - August 31, 2023
- The Power of Compound Marketing: Kevin Lee Presents @ 1MediaWorld 2023 Global Conference - March 7, 2023