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!

#1

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”.

Image credits: anon

#2

NFT’s

Image credits: Altharion1

#3

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)

Image credits: Icy_Difference_2963

#4

3D television/movies

Image credits: Bot_Fly_Bot

#5

Segways were supposed to be the car killer.

Image credits: nothinga3

#6

Wii U was unfortunate. The Switch is just a very refined Wii U.

Image credits: DonMagnifique

#7

Motion controls in video games. They have not disappeared completely but they are nowhere as popular as they were back in the late 2000s.

Image credits: anon

#8

Google glass

Image credits: fnex101

#9

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.

#10

The Metaverse.

Image credits: SlapDatBassBro

#11

Those chips that were “fat free”, except they made you have violent diarrhea and a**l leakage because of the Olestra used in them.

Image credits: bonafidehooligan

#12

Curved TV’s.

Image credits: Envoyager

#13

When the Windows Phone was unveiled, Microsoft held a genuine funeral procession for the iPhone.

Image credits: Famannot34

#14

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

#15

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.

#16

Fusion power is always 10 years away

#17

HD DVD

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

Image credits: anon

#18

Amazon’s shopping buttons. They pushed really hard for those and I never saw the point.

Image credits: anon

#19

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.

Image credits: Coolman_Rosso

#20

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.

#21

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

Image credits: zombiesnare

#22

KONY 2012

Image credits: anon

#23

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

#24

Zune

Image credits: ShoopufJockey

#25

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.

#26

Google+

Image credits: realhollywoodactor

#27

One of the funniest I remember was solar roads. Solar panels that you drive on. Without damaging them, somehow. With your operating room tires.

Image credits: Bonhomme7h

#28

Fyre festival

#29

How is that tesla cybertruck, it was announced years ago but not available yet, or is it?

Image credits: OldMork

#30

Cryptoland.

#31

Hopefully, A.I..

#32

electric cars. the batteries are a joke, ruin the environment to produce, and the charging stations run off fossil fuels.

#33

Minidisc

Image credits: Miserable_Toe9920

#34

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.

Image credits: Skipp_To_My_Lou

#35

New Coke, 20 or 30 years ago, I think. Belly flopped.

Image credits: Pure_Kale_3172

#36

How has NOBODY posted about the Firephone???

Whole teams of people were fired after that debacle.

Image credits: JumpintheFiah

#37

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.

Image credits: Informal_Stranger117

#38

The XFL….twice

#39

Drone delivery of packages

#40

Threads

#41

The future when you were young?

#42

Fetch

Image credits: IamToddDebeikis

#43

That Quibi app that was supposed to be the next big thing in streaming bc you paid for short-form content, even though you could literally get the same thing on YouTube for free…

Image credits: SpiderAppleCider

#44

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.

#45

Meghan and Harry

#46

The N-Gage

#47

Handheld gaming consoles not called Game Boy during the Game Boy’s reign.

Image credits: thenamelessavenger

#48

Soccer player Freddy Adu. I know little about soccer, but find this guy’s story fascinating. He was a young player in the 2000s who was so good that soccer would explode in popularity in the US around him. Turns out he was a gifted player but didn’t want to do the training so he flopped. Every few years you hear about his comeback.

Image credits: InsaneLuchad0r

#49

The Dark Universe

#50

3D printing was supposed to revolutionize everything.

It’s useful and it’s neat, but isn’t civilization altering
Source: boredpanda.com