5 Most Over-hyped Flops of 2011

RIM Playbook

This was expected to give the sliding fortunes of RIM a fillip. Instead, it sold far fewer than Apple’s iPad because it needed to be paired with a BlackBerry to access most features. So, if you don’t have a BB, which most people don’t because they already have an iPhone or an Android, then your PlayBook is just a browsing device. And it had a few thousand apps when the iPad had more than a lakh. Neither good for work nor play.


Maruti Kizashi

When Maruti gave out full page ads before the launch of this car, it seemed to be the next blockbuster in waiting. It was in March, and went downhill from there. The debacle was perhaps a sign of worse times ahead: Soon its Manesar plant was crippled by union strikes. Kizashi is now clocking the lowest sales, if at all, in its category.


Color
Sequoia and Bain Capital put in an unusually generous $41 million into this venture, a social picture-sharing service. But following its March launch, hardly anybody used it. Critics ridiculed the company’s premise that people wanted to share photos with others in the vicinity — like at a concert or sporting event — but not on Facebook.

The Beaver

The movie wasn’t supposed to make millions — it opened in just 22 theatres in North America. But even then it made far less than what was expected of Jodie Foster’s much-awaited third directorial venture, with her and Mel Gibson in the lead. Despite being hyped for its quality and acting, the audience chose almost anything else that was running at the same time. Quite a let down from Gibson.

Google Plus
With 30 million users and counting, it must be doing well. Not so, when compared with Facebook’s 800 million. Google+ was built to take on FB, but its growth seems to have slowed. For that reason, it’s a flop because it was so over-hyped. But there is still hope yet — if it manages to get hundreds of millions of users next year. Tall order, even for a giant like Google.