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Remember the Segway craze of the early 2000s? Mall cops were zooming down walkways with them, and guided Segway tours became a hit in popular tourist destinations. But then, seemingly overnight, they disappeared. And now they’re nowhere to be found, as electric scooters have quickly become the preferred mode of transit for pedestrians who don’t feel like walking.

There’s a new “next big thing” every year, but unfortunately, they don’t all live up to their own expectations. Redditors have recently been discussing “next big things” that massively flopped, so below, you can look back on products and companies that, in hindsight, probably received too much hype. Enjoy scrolling through, and be sure to upvote the things you had completely forgotten about!

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#1

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead Not entirely relevant, but I liked the trend where everybody wanted the smallest cell phone possible. For 20 years cell phones got smaller and smaller. Often being the main selling point of the phone.

Then all of sudden you could watch videos on your phone, and almost overnight the trend reversed to “larger is better”.

anon , Thomas Kohler/flickr Report

Final score:
242points
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Telmo Belo
Telmo Belo
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10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We found out we could watch xxx on phones, so screens got bigger

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#2

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead The “[pandemic] baby boom” People thought that during lockdowns we’d see a bunch of pregnancies because couples would essentially have nothing else to do. Instead we saw people isolate more even after the lockdowns ended and fewer people are dating at all now let alone having kids. When inflation started to increase you also saw more people choose to delay having kids due to increased costs and some residual effects of shortages (like the baby formula shortage we had in the US last year)

Icy_Difference_2963 , Kei Scampa/pexels Report

Final score:
193points
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Pyla
Pyla
Community Member
10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So the gubmint decided to strip away autonomy from women.

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#3

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead 3D television/movies

Bot_Fly_Bot , cottonbro studio/pexels Report

Final score:
188points
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Captain Kyra
Captain Kyra
Community Member
10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

3D movies give me a headache, I always avoid them if I can

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#4

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead NFT's

Altharion1 , pinguino k/flickr Report

Final score:
184points
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Juririn
Juririn
Community Member
10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They were a scam to begin with, who actually, reaaaaaly thought they'd be life-changing 😑?

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#5

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead Those chips that were “fat free”, except they made you have violent diarrhea and a**l leakage because of the Olestra used in them.

bonafidehooligan , Robyn Lee/flickr Report

Final score:
179points
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Javelina Poppers
Javelina Poppers
Community Member
10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

An*l leakage and explosive diarrhea is a sure fire weight loss regimen.

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#6

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead Segways were supposed to be the car killer.

nothinga3 , Gustavo Fring/pexels Report

Final score:
177points
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#7

Internet of Things.

I'm an engineer, and while I was in college people in my field have been banging that drum.

Turns out we just need a good enough refrigerator, not an internet connected one.

NighthawK1911 Report

Final score:
173points
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#8

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead Google glass

fnex101 , Dan Leveille/Wikimedia Report

Final score:
167points
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#9

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead When the Windows Phone was unveiled, Microsoft held a genuine funeral procession for the iPhone.

Famannot34 , Kārlis Dambrāns/flickr Report

Final score:
143points
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#10

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead Blockchain. I couldn’t stop hearing about it in grad school. I got pushed into studying data analytics and had to do a course on it. In the end I wrote my paper on the usefulness of it and basically said “it’s not without its uses, but there doesn’t seem to be a pressing need for it.” I read later a much better assessment of “a solution looking for a problem” and that basically nailed it.

jigga19 , YuriArcursPeopleimages Report

Final score:
142points
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Two_rolling_black_eyes
Two_rolling_black_eyes
Community Member
10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Blockchain is an excellent choice for many things but its main commercial use (cryptocurrency) isn't one of them. Its wasting resources to create an artificial scarcity that has no real value. The strength or weakness of a currency is user belief. Almost the entire world looked at it and decided my one dollar or one yen bill works just fine and it won't go away if I forget a password.

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#11

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead I’m still very distraught we never got the modular phone revolution I was promised back in the early 2010s. Now it’s wildly exciting to have a replaceable battery. My heart weeps

zombiesnare , Fairphone Report

Final score:
129points
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Draaideur
Draaideur
Community Member
10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Check out the Fairphone if you're interested in this: https://www.fairphone.com/en/2023/12/19/ifixit-thinks-the-fairphone-experiment-is-fixing-the-tech-industry/

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#12

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead Google+

realhollywoodactor , Kristina Alexanderson/flickr Report

Final score:
126points
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#13

Drone delivery of packages

a116jxb Report

Final score:
126points
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Xenon
Xenon
Community Member
10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

People would just start shooting them down to steal.

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#14

The DCEU. I mean, they started a franchise finally showing Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman together on the big screen, and yet they somehow managed to botch it so spectacularly, so early on.

Emperor_D4C Report

Final score:
118points
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T'Mar of Vulcan
T'Mar of Vulcan
Community Member
10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've watched all those movies and couldn't tell you what happened in any of them except the first Wonder Woman movie.

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#15

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead Amazon’s shopping buttons. They pushed really hard for those and I never saw the point.

anon , Alexander Klink/wikimedia Report

Final score:
117points
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#16

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead The Metaverse.

SlapDatBassBro , sese_87/flickr Report

Final score:
115points
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#17

Meghan and Harry

randomname196 Report

Final score:
112points
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#18

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead Curved TV's.

Envoyager , Kārlis Dambrāns/flickr Report

Final score:
110points
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Kaspar Kristiansen
Kaspar Kristiansen
Community Member
10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Is that trend "dead"? Just thought it's not cheap enough yet to be massively expanded.. saw several high end curved TV's on display in my local electronics store, when I visited to get my new, cheap QLED tv.

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#19

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead Motion controls in video games. They have not disappeared completely but they are nowhere as popular as they were back in the late 2000s.

anon , William Hook/flickr Report

Final score:
109points
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sturmwesen
sturmwesen
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10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I once lost about 12kg with wii sports. hmm might as well try again

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#20

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead Minidisc

Miserable_Toe9920 , Nixdorf/wikimedia Report

Final score:
98points
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Kaspar Kristiansen
Kaspar Kristiansen
Community Member
10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh yes, I went with that.... just a better way to mixtape than the old tape format. But noone else jumped on board it seemed:)

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#21

Kinect was a full body motion control thing for the Xbox 360. It was supposed to change the gaming industry. It had maybe a dozen games made for it, most of which barely worked. And it silently went away after about 2 or 3 years.

MembraneintheInzane Report

Final score:
93points
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#22

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead How is that tesla cybertruck, it was announced years ago but not available yet, or is it?

OldMork , Lcaa9 Report

Final score:
90points
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Mike F
Mike F
Community Member
10 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's the silliest looking thing on the road. Looks like it was slapped together by the couple of rednecks in a garage with a brake.

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#23

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead New Coke, 20 or 30 years ago, I think. Belly flopped.

Pure_Kale_3172 , Jetijonez/wikimedia Report

Final score:
90points
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#24

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead The litany of film adaptations of young adult novels that happened in the wake of Hunger Games' success. Aside from Divergent, which eventually ran out of gas, and Maze Runner all of them flopped and didn't get sequels.

Coolman_Rosso , 20th Century Fox Report

Final score:
89points
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StPaul9
StPaul9
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10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well, cutting out all the controversial parts of His Dark Materials to make it marketable is your first problem.

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#25

Fyre festival

Lil_chocolate2 Report

Final score:
86points
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#26

The future when you were young😂

AnimatedHumiliator Report

Final score:
85points
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General Anaesthesia
General Anaesthesia
Community Member
10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"When I was young I was poor. But after decades of hard work, I'm no longer young."

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#27

Clear Pepsi. If I remember correctly they even used a Van Halen song for the commercials

Spicoli76 Report

Final score:
84points
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cadena kuhn
cadena kuhn
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10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They just came out with clear ketchup did they learn nothing from the crazy colors of the 90s

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#28

Hopefully, A.I..

masuski1969 Report

Final score:
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#29

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead How has NOBODY posted about the Firephone???

Whole teams of people were fired after that debacle.

JumpintheFiah , Sam Churchill/flickr Report

Final score:
83points
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#30

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead Wii U was unfortunate. The Switch is just a very refined Wii U.

DonMagnifique , ze_bear/flickr Report

Final score:
75points
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JB
JB
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10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The Wii U is still around, but mostly on ambulances.

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#31

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead One of the funniest I remember was solar roads. Solar panels that you drive on. Without damaging them, somehow. With your operating room tires.

Bonhomme7h , unknown Report

Final score:
71points
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JB
JB
Community Member
10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's easier to solar other things, like parking lots. Plus then you have the added bonus of shade for the cars.

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#32

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead HD DVD

Still remember half the movies being blue and the others red.

anon , Masaru Kamikura/flickr Report

Final score:
69points
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Javelina Poppers
Javelina Poppers
Community Member
10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And they say DVD and Blu-ray are becoming popular again because they're more permanent than the digital downloads you bought.

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#33

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead Dippin Dots has been the ice cream of the future for a while now. You'd think that future would have come to pass by now.

Informal_Stranger117 , Mike Mozart/flickr Report

Final score:
66points
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#34

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead Emu meat!

For a while there in the late 80s & early 90s it was a thing that doctors & lawyers who wanted the ranch lifestyle would invest in. There was enough awareness of it that emus getting killed by the monster was even played for a gag in *8 Legged Freaks* & one of the *Tremors* movies.

Skipp_To_My_Lou , Mercedes/flickr Report

Final score:
64points
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#35

Disney's Atlantis. They had a whole park planned around it. Unfortunately they released it in a year saturated by insanely good movies.

Ralph_Nacho Report

Final score:
61points
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BTDubs
BTDubs
Community Member
10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love a lot of Disney movies that flopped in the 2000's. The problem wasn't those movies, but the arrogance that their movie would beat a Harry Potter installment (in the case of Treasure Planet).

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#36

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead Zune

ShoopufJockey , Ged Carroll/flickr Report

Final score:
59points
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SonicAlchemy
SonicAlchemy
Community Member
10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Zune was just as functional, easy to upload to, use and manage as an iPod, it was just in the right place at the wrong time. It just couldn't compete with the product that got there first.

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#37

Gonna tentatively suggest this, Apple's Vision Pro headset thing.

A VR headset with a separate battery that you have to carry, creepy eye vision screen on the front, and all for only $3500+. How could it fail?

Also, now that I think of it. Apple's Ping social networking thing.

Thumper-Comet Report

Final score:
57points
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#38

Fusion power is always 10 years away

YouEnvironmental2079 Report

Final score:
43points
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Marian Spanik
Marian Spanik
Community Member
10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No, it didn't flop: https://fusionforenergy.europa.eu/news/jt-60sa-is-officially-the-most-powerful-tokamak/

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#39

Threads

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Final score:
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Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My!
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My!
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10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My threads hold my clothing together. Believe me when I say this is a very good thing for the world.

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#40

40 Products That Were Thought To Be Life-Changing, But Were Utter Flops Instead KONY 2012

anon , RARE.PIK/flickr Report

Final score:
25points
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