Launched in 2023, consumers can “experience the indulgent flavors of their favorite snack in a liquid form with Empirical Doritos.” Made from real nacho cheese and corn tostada, this spirit opens with umami and tangy aromas, before finishing on a soft salty note. Consumers can enjoy it neat or in a cocktail, such as a Margarita or Bloody Mary.
Released in 2005, Chantico was available at Starbucks for less than one year before the company pulled it from its menus. Chantico was Starbucks’ version of drinking chocolate which was made by steaming cocoa butter and whole milk, making it extremely decadent, sweet, and rich. It wasn’t necessarily the flavor that was the culprit of its short-lived availability, it was the fact that Chantico was not customizable, which, in the eyes of Starbucks fans, is far from ideal. Customers of the Seattle-based business know they can swap milk, syrups, sizes, and even the sugar content of any of their favorite drinks, but you couldn’t even order a larger size of Chantico; it was six ounces or nothing at all — and no extra flavorings.
The Los Angeles Buccaneers were a traveling team in the NFL during the 1926 season, ostensibly representing the city of Los Angeles. However, the team never actually played a league game in Los Angeles. It was operated out of Chicago with players from California colleges. The Buccaneers originally planned to play in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and became a road team only after the Coliseum Commission refused to allow pro teams to play there. The difficulty of transcontinental travel in the era before modern air travel must have been a major factor in the decision to base the team in the Midwest. Despite being rejected by the Coliseum, the Buccaneers did play two true home games in Los Angeles, both of them exhibition games against the AFL’s New York Yankees in January 1927. Because of this, the NFL officially considers the team’s home city to be Los Angeles.
Launched in July 2011 and discontinued 49 days later, HP Touchpad failed since it didn’t have enough apps for the tablet (300 vs. 90,000 for the iPad). HP also failed to make a clear distinction between the TouchPad and other tablets by Apple, Google, Motorola and Samsung.
Launched in 2010, Xbox Kinect’s motion-control capabilities mostly appealed to casual gamer and wasn’t able to endear itself to the hardcore gamer. This led to limited interest from third-party developers due do the limited number of Kinects sold as well as its technical limitations.
A theremini is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). The thereminist stands in front of the instrument and moves their hands in the proximity of two metal antennas. It soon fell into disuse with serious musicians, mainly because newer electronic instruments were introduced that were easier to play.
The Google Search Appliance, introduced in 2002, was a rack-mounted computer device that provided document indexing functionality. Demand for a hardware appliance waned as cloud-based alternatives were made available.
Launched in 2018, AWS discontinued DeepLens in 2024. It was the world’s first deep-learning enabled video camera for developers. It was designed to help users grow their machine learning skills through hands-on computer vision tutorials, example code, and pre-built models. TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn, Keras, and CUDA were the most popular alternatives and competitors to AWS DeepLens.
In 2024, Snap discontinued its Pixy flying selfie camera drone after just four months. The company recalled all 71K drones it sold because their batteries pose a fire hazard.
Founded in 1984, Nike Golf discontinued its equipment business in 2016. Declining sales was due to intense competition from other major brands such as Callaway, TaylorMade, and Titleist. The golf industry was struggling then due to a decline in the number of golfers, especially among younger generations. This trend had led to oversupply and intense price competition in the market, making it difficult for companies like Nike to maintain profitability.
