The 10 Biggest Computer Flops

Miguel Carrasco has put together his list of the 10 biggest computer flops of all time. Being the pendant that I am, I take issue with his list in a couple of respects. First, that "of all time" tag always irritates me. What he means, of course, is "time up until now". But, as I say, I’m in pedant mode.

 

More seriously however, I would question his attribution of the "greatest flop" label against some of his list. Yes, the Xerox Alto and the NeXT did not become ubiquitous. But I would argue that they were seminal. They represented ideas and ideals that subsequent designers sought to emulate, and have led directly to today’s Macintosh and Windows operating systems. And CP/M was hardly "one of the greatest flops". It was remarkably successful for its time. It fell, not through a fault of its own, but because a meeting between IBM and its owner did not take place.

 

Still, I would agree with his inclusion of the embarrassing IBM PC/Jr and the Apple Newton in his list. Both should have been strangled at birth. And on the software side, Microsoft’s BOB, Windows ME and IBM’s OS/2 probably deserve to be there. Although, to be fair, OS/2 soldiered on in ATMs for years before falling by the wayside.