eMarker - Failure Museum

Sony eMarker

Launched in 2000 and discontinued in 2001, the Sony eMarker allowed you to mark songs that you heard on the radio so you could buy them later. This $20 keychain had a button and small LCD display. When you heard a song on the radio you wanted to remember, you pushed the button. You could save up to 10 “eMarks.” When you got home, you plugged your eMarker into your computer and fired up a Flash app that cross referenced your time stamp with the radio stations that you said you liked in your area and told you what was playing at the time. It then offered you a link to purchase a CD from Amazon or CDNow. The eMarker was based on the assumption that radio would be the main way people discovered new music. And then users would pay to buy CDs from Amazon. iTunes and the iPod destroyed that world.

Joy - Failure Museum

Joy

Launched in 2016, Joy was a digital picture frame to upload, share, and curate photos. However, other devices such as Alexa were cheaper, could be used for more than a single function, and were also multi-modal allowing for video, text, and voice.

Sound Bites Pop Radio - Failure Museum

Sound Bites Pop Radio

Sound Bites was an FM radio lollipop launched in 1998. Kids could bite the lollipop to hear radio signals through bone conduction.  However, the novelty wore off quickly, it didn’t compete well against other toys that offered more engaging and versatile play experiences, there were concerns about bacterial contamination, the bone conduction technology had limitations in sound quality and reliability, and some kids were uncomfortable having their teeth rattled.

Colorado Rockies - Failure Museum

Colorado Rockies 2025

With 119 losses, second most in MLB history, they narrowly performed better than the Chicago White Sox of last year who had 121 losses and set the modern MLB record for worst season in MLB history.

However, the Colorado Rockies had a run differential of -424 in the 2025 season, which is the worst since 1900. The team was outscored by a total of 424 runs, an overwhelming margin compared to the previous modern-era record holder, the 1932 Boston Red Sox, who had a -345 run differential.  Their starting rotation also had the worst single-season ERA, 6.65, since it became an official stat in both leagues in 1913.

Geotek Communications - Failure Museum

Geotek Communications

Geotek Communications, who provided mobile communication for fleets of trucks and vans, filed for bankruptcy in 1998 after having gone public. The company struggled to enter the dispatch market and was unable to develop a wireless communications product.

Minitel - Failure Museum

Minitel

Minitel, a French telematics service, faced a “failure” not in its technical capabilities, but in its inability to compete with the rise of the internet and the way it was perceived by the public.

Living Social - Failure Museum

LivingSocial

LivingSocial was a daily deals website that launched in 2009 and was discontinued in 2016 after having raised $930M and having a peak valuation of $6B. The company failed due to intense competition from Groupon, expanding too rapidly to multiple geographies, and entering spaces it had no expertise in such as travel and local experiences. Plus they had difficulties in retaining customers especially after a security breach where hackers gained access to the account information of 50 million subscribers.

Wham-O Fun Fountain - Failure Museum

Wham-O Fun Fountain

Launched in 1977 by Wham-O, the Fun Fountain consisted of a clown hat and head which attaches onto the end of a garden hose so that the hat rises in the air when water flows through the clown’s head. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued several recalls and replacements due to injury. Children often peered into the water outlet and the stream of water caused serious eye injuries, while the hard plastic hat fell on kids frequently and caused injury.

Tivo - Failure Museum

TiVo

Founded in 1999, TiVo was a digital video recorder that optimized TV watching. Users could find and record shows that match their interests by title, actor, director, category, or keyword. The TiVo could store far more shows — hundreds of hours in most cases — since the hard drive is much more efficient than an old cassette tape.

However, TiVo soon had to face intense competition from cable and satellite TV providers who introduced their own DVR services with similar functionalities. Plus, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Hotstar, and other streaming platforms created a whole new customer segment. Consumers now had access to on-demand content that they can stream anytime, anywhere. In addition, they failed to innovate their product offerings.

Bose Sleepbuds - Failure Museum

Bose Sleepbuds

Launched in 2018 and discontinued in 2023, Bose Sleepbuds had inconsistent battery life, failure to fully charge, and random shutdowns.