Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#1

Post by mrborgen » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 8:02 PM UTC

I've often heard the claim that the startup graveyard is full of great products that didn't succeed (e.g. because the startup wasn't good enough on marketing, or because they didn't solve a big enough problem).

What are some examples of this?

If there are examples of truly great products that eventually died, I'd like to study them more in-depth.

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#2

Post by maxharris » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 8:09 PM UTC

Lotus Improv

Google Inbox

SGI workstations

Sun NeWS

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#3

Post by bufferoverflow » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 8:42 PM UTC

Google Reader

Google Wave

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#4

Post by ksaj » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 8:49 PM UTC

The Sun Ray was ahead of its time. After Oracle bought and killed it, "the cloud" kicked up and is exactly what the Sun Rays were built for in the first place. Oops!

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#5

Post by quickthrower2 » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 8:52 PM UTC

Parse (although it lives on as open source and other providers, see. https://buddy.com/blog/parse-buddy-forever-free-full-feature... for example)

Microsoft's WPF

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#6

Post by Eyes » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 8:58 PM UTC

Swype.

It disappeared from my phone this week and I'm in shambles.

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#7

Post by noitsnot » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 9:00 PM UTC

quickthrower2 wrote: post #5

Parse (although it lives on as open source and other providers, see. https://buddy.com/blog/parse-buddy-forever-free-full-feature... for example) Microsoft's WPF

WPF hasn't succeeded? What am I missing?

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#8

Post by valleyjo » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 9:02 PM UTC

Rdio. Music Streaming service. Not sure what happened after they closed up shop but the UI was beautiful and they had great performance.

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#9

Post by avivo » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 9:03 PM UTC

Zeo

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#10

Post by yodon » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 9:03 PM UTC

noitsnot wrote: post #7

quickthrower2 wrote: post #5

Parse (although it lives on as open source and other providers, see. https://buddy.com/blog/parse-buddy-forever-free-full-feature... for example) Microsoft's WPF

WPF hasn't succeeded? What am I missing?

WPF definitely falls in the didn't succeed category. Microsoft grossly mismanaged everything around WPF and C# during the Sinofsky era. It's doing much better on the C# side today but the UI developer community left WPF long ago and will never return.