These fails cost their respective companies a tremendous amount of money. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the top 10 most expensive product fails.
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00:00 Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 most expensive
00:09 product fails.
00:10 We produced this video with the GetMojo production team, our in-house team of product experts
00:15 dedicated to scouring online reviews and manufacturer websites.
00:18 If you'd like to see some successful adaptations of the failed tech in this video, why not
00:22 check out our suggested products in the description below.
00:35 The cola wars have been seemingly going on forever, and it's effectively been a two-horse
00:39 race between Coke and Pepsi.
00:40 And back in 1985, Coke came up with a rather unusual strategy to get ahead.
00:45 They decided to reformulate the much-loved Coca-Cola formula, aptly naming it "New
00:50 Coke".
00:51 Unfortunately, this new taste didn't catch on.
00:53 New Coke offered a much sweeter taste, not too dissimilar to Pepsi, which was surprising,
00:58 given that Coke had long criticised Pepsi's overly sweet taste.
01:07 The media hated it, Coke fans hated it, and it ultimately cost the company an estimated
01:11 $30 million for the privilege.
01:16 What happens when you try a little too hard to capitalise on a trend?
01:27 Well, you get perhaps one of the worst video games of all time.
01:31 It's 1982, and Steven Spielberg's latest film, "E.T.
01:34 The Extra-Terrestrial", is killing it at the box office.
01:37 So, Atari decides to pay a huge chunk of money for the rights to make an E.T. game on the
01:42 Atari 2600 console.
01:47 They then proceed to rush the game out the door, spending just five weeks developing
01:51 it.
01:52 The result is a game that was not only sparse and confusing, but incredibly difficult to
01:56 play.
01:57 The whole thing felt rushed and underdeveloped, because it was.
02:00 The vast majority of the game cartridges ended up in landfill, and in the process Atari ended
02:04 up losing somewhere in the region of $100 million.
02:17 The Segway will probably always be regarded quite fondly in the transportation zeitgeist.
02:22 It was cool, fun and futuristic.
02:24 So why did it flop?
02:25 Well, right from its launch in 2001, the funky, upright people mover was deemed far too expensive
02:30 for the mass market.
02:32 It was impractical, and had very little infrastructure to support it.
02:38 The company was also scared by reports of people injuring themselves while riding them.
02:42 In fact, Segway company owner James Heseldon died by accidentally riding his Segway off
02:46 a cliff in 2010.
02:56 The Segway Personal Transporter isn't produced anymore, and it only sold 140,000 units in
03:01 its lifetime, ultimately resulting in a company loss well in excess of $100 million.
03:15 While Amazon is an absolute powerhouse in the online retail world, its various forays
03:19 into numerous tech segments has arguably been more missed than hit.
03:23 Take its Fire Phone, a supposed rival to the iPhone, which launched back in 2014.
03:28 This smartphone initially looked promising.
03:30 Shortly after its release, however, anticipation quickly turned to disappointment.
03:37 It was expensive, didn't have as many apps as its competitors, and a lot of its supposedly
03:40 advanced features were really just engineered to get you to buy more things on Amazon.
03:45 After just 13 months on the market, Amazon pulled the phone from shelves, taking a $170
03:50 million hit to their balance sheet in the process.
03:56 I just wish there was a more gourmet option at McDonald's.
04:01 Well, apparently this was the stream of consciousness McDonald's tapped into in 1996, when their
04:07 overzealous marketing team attempted to create a "sophisticated burger" for "grown-ups".
04:17 This new burger didn't catch on, and arguably flew right in the face of the fast food chain's
04:21 family appeal.
04:22 McDonald's also faced resistance from franchisees as the Arch Deluxe required its own set of
04:27 unique ingredients, making it less efficient to produce.
04:35 The company reportedly lost around $300 million on the swanky snack, and it was swiftly added
04:40 to the ever-growing, lost menu of Mickey D. Duns.
04:52 This American car maker has a solid roster of big hitters, but it also has a fair few
04:56 flops - and none of them is more famous than the Ford Edsel.
04:59 Promised to be the car of the future, the Edsel launched in 1957, right at the beginning
05:04 of a recession with a surprisingly high price tag.
05:07 Strike one.
05:13 It was also rife with quality and reliability issues - strike two.
05:16 And what about that vertical grill?
05:18 Although originally designed to stand out, consumers just thought the grill looked odd.
05:22 Strike three.
05:29 Ford produced the car for just two years, and reportedly lost around $350 million on
05:34 the Edsel name.
05:47 The 80s was an era rife with anti-smoking sentiment, forcing tobacco brands to find
05:51 innovative ways of selling their products to consumers.
05:54 And RJ Reynolds come up with what they thought was a genius solution - Premier smokeless
05:59 cigarettes.
06:05 Pitched as a cleaner alternative to the usual crowd, this smokeless invention was pulled
06:09 from shelves just four months after it launched, reportedly leaving RJ Reynolds with a loss
06:14 of nearly $1 billion.
06:20 They tasted bad, smelled even worse, were difficult to light, and health groups took
06:25 umbrage with their claims of being healthier.
06:27 That, plus the fact that there were rumours the packaging was being used to smuggle cocaine,
06:32 all led to the smokeless cigarette quickly going up in, well, smoke.
06:40 In 2010, Microsoft launched its Kin range of phones.
06:43 The Kin 1 and Kin 2.
06:45 These looked to ride the handheld social media wave sweeping the market at the time, right
06:49 on the coattails of the iPhone 4.
06:51 There was a big problem, however.
06:53 Microsoft's Kin phones, supposedly designed specifically for hip, young, social media
06:56 loving teens, didn't support apps.
07:04 To visit Facebook, you had to go through a browser.
07:07 The actual expense of the device, and the fact that the operating system wasn't very
07:10 good - using half Windows and half something else - all made the Kin go down like a lead
07:14 balloon, to the tune of around $1 billion.
07:27 When it was introduced in 2013, this wearable tech was supposed to bring hands-free smartphone
07:32 capabilities and augmented reality to the masses.
07:35 So where did it all go wrong?
07:36 Aside from the usual high price tag and safety concerns often relating to new-fangled wearable
07:41 tech, Google Glass also struggled with disappointing battery life, poor performance and privacy
07:46 issues.
07:47 It effectively ended up marooning itself on its own niche island of what it called "Glass
07:51 Explorers", a club too expensive and impractical for anyone to want to be a part of.
07:59 Google Glass lasted just two years, in which it saw lacklustre sales and eventually it
08:04 ended up costing the company around $1 billion.
08:33 This smartphone snafu actually had a positive start.
08:36 The Note 7 was well-received when it was launched in 2016, going head-to-head with Apple's
08:41 latest iPhone.
08:42 But then Samsung hit a snag.
08:44 Reports started coming in that some Note 7 batteries were malfunctioning, overheating
08:48 and in some cases, exploding.
08:51 And one of those instances happened on an airline, leading to the Note 7 being banned
08:54 from commercial flights by the Department of Transportation.
09:02 Samsung had to roll out a major recall, which led to a huge loss of around $2 billion, and
09:08 a potential lost revenue of around $17 billion.
09:11 So tech brands, take note.
09:13 Or don't.
09:15 So, which of these product goofs do you think was the worst?
09:21 Let us know in the comments section below.
09:33 [music]
09:43 (upbeat music)