Challenger Tech Brands that Failed.

Rob ⚡️ · 2022-01-24T19:42:26+00:00

Welcome to a thread in which to discuss and mourn the tech brands that tried to break the mould … but ultimately failed. I want to hear the stories of new brands that you took a chance on, the ones that did things differently, and the stories behind why they failed. To kick things off, I tip my hat to *Wileyfox*, a British smartphone company founded in 2015 that caught my attention with its quirky branding, and a mission to offer quality smartphones at lower prices. Their tagline? - ***For fox sake, it’s time to change.*** Their inaugural devices, the *Storm,* and the *Swift*, priced at £199 and £129 respectively, were great value. They shipped with the highly customizable Cyanogen OS, had great styling, Snapdragon chips, and 4G! At the time, as a tech-loving student, the prospect of a well-specced device *without* the flagship pricing was extremely compelling. Reviews were largely positive, with many praising the solid and premium feel of the devices, owing to their use of quality materials. In 2016, *Wileyfox* released an *even cheaper* range of devices, the *Spark, Spark +,* and *Spark X* with the lowest spec model retailing for a minuscule £90. These new devices were less well-received compared to their siblings. Even with their impressively low price points, their mediocre specs failed to rival the offerings of better-established budget smartphone brands like *Motorola* or *Honor*. After a few years of trading, Wileyfox fell into administration in 2018, mostly as a result of the low-margin model they had in place to offer devices so cheaply. The company was later bought by STK who saved them from bankruptcy, but ultimately did nothing with the brand (other than releasing this [weird Windows Phone](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wileyfox-Windows-BUSINESS-SIM-Free-Smartphone-Black/dp/B077DDT9H8)). It's sad to see any company fail, especially one that attempted to pass on savings to the consumer - but in this case, the brand fell victim to its own mission. [upl-image-preview url=https://s3-nothing-prod.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/2022-01-25/1643110243-573702-image.png ] Take to the comments below to share your bereavement for a small player who was lost too soon!

Louis ☕️

mkhufp I think this is what @Pyrodox was alluding to above 👆 Great concept and thought it was such a unique gamble at the time. Perhaps at one point we might see this sort of approach return, I guess it all depends on what the market and consumers are demanding plus the additional costs to such a modular design.

Pyrodox

Sorry, we encountered an error while displaying this content. If you're a user, please try again later. If you're an administrator, take a look in your Flarum log files for more information.

Sib64

Sorry, we encountered an error while displaying this content. If you're a user, please try again later. If you're an administrator, take a look in your Flarum log files for more information.

adbo

Sib64 Really interesting, I genuinely didn’t know that the Polaroid brand today is not the same as the original brand. Polaroid is still pretty big here in the UK, they currently sell instant film and instant cameras. Looks like they were founded in 2008 as a brand acquisition of the original company. Wikipedia page

Louis ☕️

adbo Sib64 childhood memories of getting a disposable Polaroid, before any holiday. Then taking it back to the shops on return and waiting for all the snaps to develop. Those were the days 😅

RedBeardedJason

Definitely have to through Pebble into the mix. They did a great job for so long but even they couldn’t outlast the Tech Titans.

Rob ⚡️

Sorry, we encountered an error while displaying this content. If you're a user, please try again later. If you're an administrator, take a look in your Flarum log files for more information.

adbo

Louis ☕️ Ahh for me it was always the bright yellow Kodak disposable cameras 😄 but yes, fond memories!

Sib64

Sorry, we encountered an error while displaying this content. If you're a user, please try again later. If you're an administrator, take a look in your Flarum log files for more information.

adbo

Sib64 Those are the ones! They bring back so many memories. I can’t believe the viewfinder is just a hole in the camera body 🤣

Speaking of developing, my girlfriend and I always make a printed photobook each year. It’s a nice way of showing our photos to guests (if they’re interested of course!) and to look back on memories, without having hundreds of printed unorganised photos

mkhufp

this is a good thread idea. health category =theranos?
https://deadstartuptoys.com/ this is quite fun

KirubhasWasHere

Sorry, we encountered an error while displaying this content. If you're a user, please try again later. If you're an administrator, take a look in your Flarum log files for more information.

Rob ⚡️

KirubhasWasHere Great contribution to this thread! I find the design evolution of Pixel devices pretty baffling and disappointing too 😬

Sayan_Dutta

KirubhasWasHere The pixel lineup still has some time to make a come back, and I reckon they are slowly getting there. And about Android One, the less you talk about it, the better it is. Absolutely baffling that they killed it, it had some huge potential.

cristian

KirubhasWasHere Yes i got a Nokia 3.4 (Android1 + snap 4 series) for just 100€. I think there aren’t nothing better at this price. Reguarding Nexus/Pixel the big failure was the 6 becouse of was huge (6 inch in 16:9 format could be a tablet), and XLs don’t seems really cool, but however the line work. I think pixel 5 is maybe the most beautiful phone until now… Pixel 6 also cool

Louis ☕️

KirubhasWasHere The Nexus were some of the greatest HTC phones, such a shame they failed/got surpassed by Pixel due to the direction they wanted to go. Thanks for contributing this to the line up here 😃

Louis ☕️

Rob ⚡️ I remember seeing these but also don’t remember when they came out - did the launch of smartwatches almost eliminate these because of how far superior they are?

Sib64

Sorry, we encountered an error while displaying this content. If you're a user, please try again later. If you're an administrator, take a look in your Flarum log files for more information.

Louis ☕️

Sib64 Absolutely agree with you here, not sure why the craze ever took off in the first place - yes people liked Facebook and smartphones, but nobody wanted them completely together, that’s what the FB App was for lol.

Louis ☕️

Sorry, we encountered an error while displaying this content. If you're a user, please try again later. If you're an administrator, take a look in your Flarum log files for more information.

Rob ⚡️

Louis ☕️ Love this - a great video here from Snazzy Labs about it:

Some very questionable colour choices for the hardware … and squirting 😆

« Previous Page