The biggest tech fails in recent memory

The Apple Watch debuted yesterday to much fanfare — but not all tech watchers are removing their Rolexes just yet. Remember: For every iPad or other new product that revolutionizes the way we live, there’s a pile of failed tablets, would-be iPhone killers or so-called “smart” gear that turns out to be silly.

We’ll have to wait until the official release of the $349 gadget in 2015 to know for sure. But to keep some perspective, here’s a list of much-hyped gadgets from the past few years that went the way of New Coke when they were released.

Facebook Home

Facebook Home was the social media giant’s attempt to take over your mobile phone. When it was released in 2013 as an Android app, it turned a phone’s home screen into Facebook central, prioritizing connecting with Facebook friends over all other functions of the phone.

Users didn’t like the Facebook-first approach, and it got panned in the Google Play store reviews. The HTC First, the first phone to carry it, dropped its price to 99 cents just a month after it was released. It’s still on sale in the app store — for now.

BlackBerry 10

Oh, BlackBerry. You were to smartphones what LaserDisc was to DVD: a good idea that paved the way for a much better one. The new BlackBerry 10, released in 2013, was supposed to save the struggling maker of personal digital assistants, with an iPhone-like touch-screen interface and lots of apps.

But it couldn’t compete with the iPhone and Android phones that were already saturating the market, and Blackberry reported a $965 million loss after it flopped.

Microsoft Surface

Microsoft’s attempt to create an iPad killer was all wrong from the beginning. The Surface, released in 2012, posited that people wanted one device that combined a tablet and a laptop, when in reality consumers were using their iPads in addition to their computers. The worst part? The much-ballyhooed snap-on keyboard shown in all the Surface ads is actually sold separately.

Microsoft took a $900 million write-down on unsold inventory.

Apple Maps

Apple has released so few duds that this one is particularly prominent. In 2012, it released Apple Maps as an attempt to replace the native Google Maps app on iPhones, using its own mapping software.

The app was panned on arrival for providing bad directions and, worst of all for us city folk, no public transit directions. Google let Apple stew for awhile before finally releasing a Google Maps iPhone app.

Wii U

All eyes were on Nintendo in 2012 as it released its follow-up to the hyper-successful Wii console. But the company’s decision to focus on casual players instead of hard-core gamers backfired, as users didn’t embrace its bulky controller with built-in screen and its lack of notable titles.

Nintendo ended up cutting its sales predictions by 70 percent last year. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One scooped up the marketplace in the wake of its nose dive.

Zune

No list of technology flops would be complete without including the Zune. Microsoft’s 2006 music player was meant to be the iPod killer — but instead it just killed a lot of Microsoft fanboys’ dreams.

The heavy-as-a-brick device was buggy from the start, and its vaunted ability to share songs with other Zune users over Wi-Fi was a bust — it turned out the recipient could only play the song three times before it disappeared. Microsoft finally mercy killed the hardware in 2011.