The Biggest Failures in CES History

For over 50 years the company KES It remains the most important technology exhibition in the world. The halls of this fair, once called the Consumer Electronics Show and today simply CES, featured veritable technological milestones such as VCRs, compact discs, consoles such as the Atari and Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), compact discs and even electric cars. .

But also, although to a lesser extent, CES has become the scene of real fiascos: Technology just so or even reminds us that it is not necessary to integrate it into every aspect of our lives. Here are some of them:

PS5 logo

Long gone are the days when CES was a showcase for gaming consoles from big brands like Nintendo, which In 1984 he demonstrated the concept which eventually became the NES.

In 2020, Sony briefly recalled its glorious past and revealed the PlayStation 5 logo… and nothing more.

Nokia and the Chronicle of a Death Foretold

It was 2012 and the Nokia conference was generating a lot of buzz. Stephen Elop, then CEO of the Finnish company, announced several Nokia cell phones with Windows. Steve Ballmer, who headed Microsoft, talked about collaboration as the future smartphonesAt the time, Apple dominated with a still timid but growing offering of Android mobile phones.

The rest is history. Nokia remained married to Nokia until the purchase in 2014. Three years later and market share that has never reached 1 percentNokia disappeared from the smartphone market and Microsoft has completely abandoned Windows Phone.

Animated graphics of you masturbating

Just like what you are reading. In 2018, women’s sex toy company Lioness introduced a vibrator that uses sensors to convert the intensity of masturbation into “artistic” graphics. The best of the worst is the name: Artgasm, which in Spanish would be something like Orgamearte. We think it’s better in Spanish.

Motorola loses attention to iPhone

This is not exactly a fiasco, but rather another chronicle ushering in a new era. On January 8, 2007, Ed Zander, then CEO of Motorola, which along with Nokia dominated the cell phone market, optimistically introduced models such as Motorola ROKR Z6, focused on music playback. The spotlight would have been on Motorola if the next day a guy named Steve Jobs hadn’t introduced a phone called the iPhone.

Apple Pippin

Long before Apple Arcade or the App Store became a showcase for inventive video games, Apple tried to enter the console market. He did this in alliance with Bandai in 1996. presented a console condemned by its name: Pippin. Behind that terrible name, Apple and Bandai attempted to bring online gaming to a $600 console, twice as expensive as competitors like the Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn and, of course, the PlayStation.

If this is the first time you’ve heard of Apple Pippin, it’s probably because it only sold 10,000 consoles.

Giant robots rush at a speed of one kilometer per hour

There’s nothing more boring than seeing a guy inside a giant robot shaped like monument to the communist avant-garde designed to compete with its peers in races at breakneck speeds of one kilometer per hour. Well, maybe they’ll go a little faster.

The Fuss Tablet, a pirated iPad

Looks like an iPad… pirated. It was CES 2011, so the iPad had been on the market for less than a year. So, an unscrupulous company decided to show off an Android tablet with iPad looks and poor performance. Incredibly, he made it onto the show floor despite the risk of lawsuits for piracy.

and funny

Imagine the moment. You are a top manager at a dominant company in the technology market. For weeks, everyone at the company has been preparing for its CES presentation, which will see thousands of people live and many more online. So, you, the senior leader, are tasked with wearing the hat. big bird from Sesame Street. This happened at the Qualcomm conference in 2013.

Smile, top manager, you appear in dozens of press releases.