Tech that missed the mark: the 7 biggest tech flops of 2024

As the end of the year approaches, it's time to reflect on the hardware and software that failed to live up to expectations.

AI continued to take center stage in 2024 and was at the heart of some of the biggest tech announcements. Open AI debuted its Sora video generator and a new model that can reason, while other chatbot makers also moved forward with new releases.

Meta teased a pricy prototype of its Orion smart glasses, giving a potential glimpse of a future dominated by AI wearables.

Major laptop manufacturers launched their first generation of AI PCs.

And there were many more such big announcements.

However, not all new launches succeeded. Personal AI companions turned out to be buggy and half-baked, showing that for now, the only useful assistant is the one that’s already in most users’ pockets.

Beyond AI, the gaming industry saw a failed multi-million dollar launch, while many PC users had to face previously unseen issues with their desktop processors due to a manufacturer defect. A few more unsuccessful launches also fueled user dissatisfaction.

Notably, some of the companies on our list have improved or are working to improve their releases, suggesting that we might see more successful versions in the near future.

Now, let’s dive into some of the tech missteps and explore what went wrong.

1. The buggy AI assistant from ex-Apple designers

Two ex-Apple designers on the team, four years of development, and $230 million from Open AI’s CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft, Qualcomm Ventures, and other investors weren’t enough to make Humane’s AI assistant a success.

The AI Pin was supposed to be an AI assistant that could replace your phone. However, quickly after the launch, it was obvious that the device wasn’t ready for the market.

In addition to the $700 price, the buggy AI Pin was sold with a $24 monthly subscription for AI capabilities and mobile network operator, adding to user frustration.

Later, it turned out that the AI Pin’s case had problems with battery cells. In October, more than 10,000 batteries were recalled due to potential fire hazards.

After the disastrous launch, the founders have reportedly tried to sell the company for $750 million to $1 billion. Currently, there’s no news about a buy offer.

2. The multi-million dollar game from Sony

Concord, a highly anticipated shooter that took eight years to develop, didn’t launch according to Sony’s plans.

Soon after its release, the company announced that it was taking the game down and refunding $40 to those who paid for it.

According to data from the website Steam Charts, which tracks players on Steam, the highest number of Concord players on the platform a few weeks after the launch was only 660.

Sony’s modest refund expenses were just a drop in the bucket compared to the game development costs, which, according to some estimates, could have significantly exceeded the $100 million mark.

Ryan Ellis, game director at Sony-owned Firewalk Studios, said that the company would explore other options for the game, including those that will “better reach our players,” suggesting that the game may be made available for free.

This may happen soon, as the company has been updating Concord game files on Steam’s back end.

3. The overhyped orange AI device

Soon after the release of Humane’s AI Pin, Rabbit launched its AI own companion.

Even though the R1 wasn’t meant to be a smartphone replacement at launch, it cost less than the AI Pin, and, as its company’s founder Jesse Lyu highlighted during the launch keynote, came without a subscription, it turned out to be just as half-baked and buggy as the AI Pin.

Moreover, the R1’s entire interface was powered by a single Android app, which raised the question of why the R1 needs hardware at all. In addition, the device had security issues.

To Rabbit’s credit, the company keeps working on improving the device. After many software updates, the R1 can now respond faster and is easier to navigate. It also recently released the Teach mode, allowing users to train its AI model to automate tasks.

However, it is still far from the AI assistant many envisioned after its demos at CES 2024.

4. The processors with instability issues

While Intel’s desktop processors, Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake refresh, were released in 2022 and 2023, reports of failures started to emerge only this year.

Intel wasn’t quick to admit to issues causing affected processors to crash when performing tasks like loading games and running servers.

The company said that the issue stemmed from a microcode algorithm that resulted in incorrect voltage requests to the processor. According to previous Intel reports, a patch should have addressed the problem by now.

However, previous reports highlighted that the damage caused to processors was irreversible.

Following consumer dissatisfaction, the company was hit by a class-action lawsuit. In it, a consumer alleges that Intel already knew about the potential defects and decided to sell them anyway.

5.The “privacy nightmare” from Microsoft

What could go wrong if a company decides to release a default tool on PCs that periodically takes screenshots of user activity, stores them in plaintext in SQLite database, and allows anyone with administrator-level access to view the data?

Clearly, Microsoft didn’t put much thought into answering this question. Its Recall feature, announced at Microsoft Build, was quickly criticized by cybersecurity experts.

Some pointed out that with such a tool, the tech behemoth will set cybersecurity back a decade and empower cybercriminals.

After a wave of criticism, the company postponed the launch of the tool and made changes. These included not making the feature default, requiring it to use Windows Hello, and more.

The feature is currently available as a preview for the Windows Insiders program for those who have eligible Copilot +PCs.

6. The YouTuber’s pricey wallpaper app

Months after posting quite critical video reviews about two of the previously discussed AI companions, the AI Pin and The R1, popular tech reviewer Marques Brownlee, better known as MKBHD on YouTube, announced his own product during his iPhone 16 review video.

It was a wallpaper app called Panels, which had a Premium tier of $11 a month (or $50 a year), similar to that of a monthly Netflix subscription.

Thousands of angered and surprised users on his YouTube channel, Reddit, and other platforms pointed out that wallpapers can be found on the internet for free. Some highlighted that the YouTuber would likely be quite harsh on someone else's $11 wallpaper app, and MKBHD later acknowledged this.

The app, whose wallpapers were quickly leaked after the launch, also asked for too many unnecessary permissions, such as location, and tracking users' activity.

After a backlash, the YouTuber fixed the excessive app permissions and added a $2 per month tier with no ads.

7. The costly VR device from Apple

While we wouldn’t call Apple’s spatial computing device a flop purely from a technological standpoint, considering how much hype it generated and its actual real-world usage, it’s been far from a successful product so far.

Just a few months after Apple began shipping its Vision Pro, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that the company had reduced its forecasts by half to just 350.000-400.000 units per year. Apple also reportedly decided to postpone the launch of its second version of the Vision Pro.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that the Vision Pro is an early adopter product and said that it will get better.

Currently, the company is working on a lighter and cheaper version of the device.

However, after the launch of Meta’s Orion smart glasses, which are still a work in progress and will not be released anytime soon, many point out that AR glasses, rather than bulky headsets, might be the future of mainstream adoption.