8 wrong decisions in the history of the technology industry

1. Nokia chose Windows Phone instead of Android

Nokia was once the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer, but by the early 2010s it had lost most of its market share to iPhone and Android.

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At that time, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop did not choose the Android platform for development because he thought the company would not be able to differentiate itself in technology from other manufacturers. He decided to cooperate with Microsoft to produce smartphones running the Windows Phone operating system.

At that time, Nokia Lumia devices actually had very good hardware but could not compete with Samsung because they were held back by Windows Phone.

2. Blockbuster turned down the opportunity to buy Netflix

In September 2000, Netflix co-founders Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph met with Blockbuster CEO John Antioco with a proposal to sell the online video service to Blockbuster. Unfortunately, Blockbuster did not reciprocate that sentiment.

Previously, Netflix rejected an offer to buy Amazon, saying Blockbuster would be a good fit.

3. Microsoft releases Chatbot trained by the Internet

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In 2016, Microsoft launched an Internet-trained chatbot called "Tay". But less than a day after launch, Microsoft removed Tay because these chatbots made silly mistakes.

4. Apple redesigned the MacBook keyboard

In 2015, Apple introduced a new keyboard design that is thinner, quieter and more responsive than traditional keyboards, called the 'butterfly keyboard' for MacBooks.

However, this new keyboard has some errors such as sticky keys, unresponsiveness.

At that time, Apple issued an apology and free repairs but did not admit any design errors.

5. Google tries to create hype with Google+ invites

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In 2011, the social networking platform Google+ was launched to compete with Facebook and Twitter. At that time, only users who receive the invitation can use it.

Google+ has hundreds of millions of accounts but has never had more active users than Twitter.

The company has released multiple updates and redesigns to improve Google+ without success. Finally, in 2019, Google had to shut down the platform after a series of scandals related to data breaches.

6. Amazon invests in phones

Amazon has (and still does) have a lot of success with its Kindle e-readers and Fire tablets.

In 2014, Amazon decided to venture into the smartphone market with the Amazon Fire Phone product, launched exclusively on AT&T.

The Fire Phone has some unique features but poor design quality and low specs. Therefore, the product quickly became estranged and finally, after less than a year of launch, Amazon had to temporarily stop phone production.

7. Silicon Valley 'fell in love' with Quibi

Quibi is a short-form streaming platform launched in April 2020 founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman. The platform has raised $1.75 billion from Silicon Valley investors. Quibi targets young users.

However, in less than a year, it quickly collapsed in December 2020.

8. HP creates WebOS chaos

In April 2010, HP spent $1.2 billion to acquire Palm and WebOS. HP wants to use WebOS on everything from smartphones to printers. But what happened was contrary to expectations, so in 2013 HP sold WebOS to LG for use on smart TVs.

Marvin Fry

Update 16 November 2023