Computerworld has just published its list of the biggest technology flops. Prime position goes to Apple for the Newton Message Pad.
That is, frankly ridiculous. The Message Pad wasn’t a flop. Thousands of people loved it and a thriving developer community built-up around it. Sure it was a little over-priced, and the handwriting recognition wasn’t brilliant. But it was way ahead of its time and paved the way, as Computerworld admits, for PDAs of the future.
Second on the list was DAT. Wrong again. DAT may never have taken off in the consumer space, but it was used for well over a decade by broadcasters and musicians to record high-quality digital audio.
Other gadgets deserve their place on the list. E-book reader, anyone? How about the Beenz Internet currency.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about the list were the omissions. Why wasn’t the Sinclair C5 on there? For those too young to remember, the C5 was an electric go-kart that you had to peddle to charge the battery. If you thought Segue owners riding around on gyroscopic lawn mowers look daft, you should have tried taking to the streets in a half-size bobsleigh and tried to peddle through the London traffic.
Then of course there’s the Amstrad eMailer — a phone designed for people who want to use email but don’t have access to a computer. Only problem was that by the time it came out, everyone who wanted to use email already had a PC, or if they were smart, a Mac. About the only place you see the eMailer these days is on The Apprentice.
No place either for Windows Me or BeOS, both of which should have been on there.
