Difference between revisions 2276620 and 2276662 on enwiki

A '''flop'''  or '''product failure''' is a [[product (business)|product]] that doesn't reach expectations of success, failing to come even close. A major flop goes one step further and is recognized for its almost complete lack of success.

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* The [[Betamax]] [[VCR]] system - after some initial sucess it was soundly beaten in the marketplace by [[VHS]]. Betamax failed in part because it was not an open standard.
* The [[Digital Compact Cassette]] - a format introduced by [[Philips]], which lost out to [[Minidisc]] and [[CD-R]]
* [[DIVX]], a take-off on [[DVD]] that required users to pay per viewing. Retail electronics giant and DIVX backer [[Circuit City]] lost about $200m over the fiasco.
* [[eBook]] devices. Between 
[[1999]] and [[2002]], a number of companies, notably [[Gemstar]], jockeyed for control of this supposedly vast, lucrative market, believing that consumers would pay hardcover prices for a severely limited number of book titles in [[Digital rights management|DRM]]-encrypted formats that tied each electronic copy to a unique serialized hardware device. In [[2002]] the "eBooks are dead" meme became widespread. In [[2003]], Gemstar pulled the plug on its servers and [[Barnes and Noble and Amazon]] ceased offering eBook content of any kind. 
* The [[Elcaset]] audio format - an attempt at a higher-quality replacement for the [[compact audio cassette|compact cassette]] by [[Sony]].
* [[Lymeswold cheese]] (UK)
* The [[Millennium Dome]] - a commercial and public relations disaster, it now lies empty in [[Greenwich]], [[England]].
* [[New Coke]].  The [[Coca-Cola]] company changed the formula and taste of its flagship product,  a universally successful drink whose name was almost synonymous with [[soft drink]]s.  It was a marketing and public relations debacle, and the company had to backtrack and return to the older formula. However, when they went back to the original formula, demand for the classic taste grew to a greater extent than before New Coke, propelling Coca-Cola to a market lead over rival [[Pepsi]] - making the situation an unintentional success for Coca-Cola.
* The [[Tanganyika groundnut scheme]], a plan by [[Clement Attlee]]'s [[British government]], financed by British tax-payers, to cultivate tracts of what is now [[Tanzania]] with [[peanuts]].
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==Flops in science and engineering==

A scientific flop may be something that took years of man-hours and a lot of money to complete (or perhaps never completed) and ended in failure.

* The [[Chauchat]] light machine gun - the French weapon of WWI was notorious for its unreliability, prone to jamming and lack of precision manufacturing.
* [[Cold fusion]] - after much hype, claims of success proved false. (Research into cold fusion continues.)
(contracted; show full)*The [[UK Labour Party|Labour Party]]'s performance at the [[1983 UK general election|1983 general election]], led by [[Michael Foot]].

==See also==

* [[product management]]
* [[management]]
* [[new product development]]
* [[product (business)|product]]