Top 10 Most Expensive Product FAILS

WatchMojo

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.

Transcript

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)

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