PC World - The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time

http://www.pcworld.com/article/125772/the_25_worst_tech_products_of_all_time.html

The idea of looking at this article was to see what makes a bad media-related invention. It emerged during a search on the subject of iSmell (which finished 24th), but includes software as well as physical creations. There are some features which are apparent across the list; most fundamentally is the concept itself, some of which are quite ridiculous. Priceline.com were selling cheap petrol online, it would arrive a few days after ordering in the form of a card which could only then be used in a very select few petrol stations. Another reason for many of the things being on this list is that they were badly made and would often break, which is not the sign of a bad idea, but of bad manufacturing and is not really to be considered when thinking about Design Futures.

There are two more reasons for concepts making this unfortunate quarter-century, both of which are through the tech being released too early. In the case of some software, such as (no. 4) Disney's The Lion King CD-ROM for Windows, there was a requirement for a cutting edge graphics card that was mostly unobtainable for everyday Windows users. Hardware technologies have also failed through being released too soon, like in the case of iSmell, which didn't catch on because the technology was ahead of it's time, and cost too much for the consumer. However, it is possible that people also just don't want to smell websites. I think if angled correctly, marketed well and made both available and cheap, the idea of digital smells could catch on.