Apple’s iPhone “isn’t the first tech product to generate a deafening amount of buzz before its availability in stores. Here’s our list of the most-hyped tech products of all time. Some thrived, others died, but all generated more than their fair share of ink,” Carolyn Duffy Marsan writes for Network World.
• 1984 – Apple Macintosh: Since its debut in January 1984, the Mac has gone through many design changes, but it has kept its rebel image.
• 1993 – Intel Pentium chip: Intel Inside television ads urged PC buyers to request Pentium processors.
• 1993 – Apple Newton: Former Apple CEO John Sculley will go down in history for coining the phrase “personal digital assistant.”
• 1994 – IBM OS/2 Warp: IBM’s alternative to Microsoft’s Windows operating system never caught on with the masses.
• 1995 – Microsoft Windows 95: Look, ma, I got an upside-down and backwards, counterintuitive, ugly, fake Mac!*
• 1996 – Oracle’s Network Computer: It was supposed to unseat the PC on corporate desktops.
• 2001 – The Segway: Speculation was rampant before award-winning inventor Dean Kamen unveiled his mysterious device code-named Ginger.
• 2002 – Microsoft Tablet PC: Bill Gates’ vision of a tablet PC and digital pen has yet to catch on.
*Susbstitute description by MacDailyNews because Network World wouldn’t dare.
More details and some interesting links in the full article here.
Try as we might, we don’t see Microsoft’s Tablet PC or Oracle’s NC belonging on this list. Do you see anything else that’s missing or undeserving?