💻 Tech Fails & Flops Trivia Questions & Answers
The Newton, Google Glass and the gadgets that flopped hard. Below are 30 free tech fails & flops trivia questions with answers — part of Tech trivia on BUZZ. Want a real challenge that adapts to what you know? Play the Tech quiz — no signup needed to start.
30 Tech Fails & Flops trivia questions
Q1. Which dot-com pet site became famous for its sock-puppet mascot before folding in late 2000?
Answer: Pets.com
💡 The sock puppet's Super Bowl ad cost $1.2 million to air, even though the company had earned barely $619,000 all year.
Q2. Which January 2000 union of a dial-up giant and a media empire is called history's worst merger?
Answer: AOL and Time Warner
💡 Ted Turner, who'd sold his network into the deal, later said it cost him roughly 80% of his personal fortune.
Q3. Which iPhone app's glitchy 2012 debut pushed Tim Cook into a rare public apology letter?
Answer: Apple Maps
💡 Among the glitches: a Dublin farm named 'Airfield' got promoted to a full-blown airport on the map.
Q4. Which 2006 Microsoft music player got roasted online for offering a much-mocked brown color option?
Answer: Zune
💡 A price cut briefly pushed the brown model to the top of Amazon's electronics sales chart in November 2007.
Q5. Which wearable, pulled from consumer sale in 2015, gave the world the mocking nickname 'Glasshole'?
Answer: Google Glass
💡 Google didn't kill the idea outright — it relaunched the device as a pricier enterprise-only headset in 2017.
Q6. Which 2000 Windows version did PC World brand with the derisive nickname 'Mistake Edition'?
Answer: Windows ME
💡 Windows Me shipped as a home-user upgrade from Windows 98, while a separate line, Windows 2000, targeted business PCs.
Q7. Which Samsung phone was recalled worldwide in October 2016 after fires got it banned from flights?
Answer: Galaxy Note 7
💡 The recall and production halt were projected to cost Samsung nearly $17 billion in lost revenue.
Q8. Which Microsoft operating system did PC World crown the biggest tech disappointment of 2007?
Answer: Windows Vista
💡 Vista's successor, Windows 7, reused much of the same code but won over critics just by dialing back the naggy security pop-ups.
Q9. Which Apple senior VP was fired in October 2012 after refusing to sign the company's Maps apology?
Answer: Scott Forstall
💡 Eddy Cue absorbed both Maps and Siri once Forstall departed, folding even more of iOS under his own control.
Q10. Which Microsoft phone line launched in May 2010 and got killed just 48 days later?
Answer: Microsoft Kin
💡 Microsoft had sunk about $1 billion into the platform, partly through its earlier purchase of Danger Incorporated.
Q11. Which format did Toshiba abandon in February 2008, handing Sony's Blu-ray the HD disc war win?
Answer: HD DVD
💡 Warner Bros., Best Buy, and Netflix all publicly swung behind Blu-ray in the weeks just before Toshiba's surrender.
Q12. Which optical disc format, on sale in the US from 1978, got its final Pioneer player made in 2009?
Answer: LaserDisc
💡 Pioneer's final production run leaned on karaoke players, since karaoke bars were among the format's last loyal customers.
Q13. Which 2014 Amazon smartphone triggered a $170 million write-down within months of launch?
Answer: Fire Phone
💡 Its marquee feature was a 3D 'Dynamic Perspective' display driven by four extra front-facing cameras.
Q14. Which HP tablet launched in July 2011, only to be discontinued a mere 49 days later?
Answer: HP TouchPad
💡 A frantic fire sale slashed its price to $99, and it briefly outsold every non-Apple tablet in the US that year.
Q15. Which online grocery startup burned through roughly $800 million before its 2001 bankruptcy?
Answer: Webvan
💡 At its peak the company was losing about $20 on every single grocery order it delivered.
Q16. Which home format, pushed hard at CES 2010, saw Samsung finally drop it from TVs by 2016?
Answer: 3D TV
💡 ESPN and DirecTV had already pulled their dedicated 3D channels back in 2013 and 2012, years before TV makers gave up.
Q17. Which 2011 tablet launched needing a BlackBerry phone nearby just to check email at all?
Answer: BlackBerry PlayBook
💡 RIM finally built in native email and calendar apps with PlayBook OS 2.0, a full ten months after the tablet's launch.
Q18. Which combined media giant posted a record $98.7 billion net loss for fiscal year 2002?
Answer: AOL Time Warner
💡 Nearly all of it came from writing down the merger's goodwill — including a $45.5 billion charge in the final quarter alone.
Q19. Which 1998 iMac accessory got mocked for its awkward round shape and stubby cord?
Answer: Apple USB Mouse
💡 Reviewers nicknamed it the 'hockey puck' mouse, and Apple swapped it out for the Pro Mouse within two years.
Q20. Which 1984 IBM home computer flopped partly thanks to its widely mocked rubber 'chiclet' keyboard?
Answer: IBM PCjr
💡 The outcry got loud enough that IBM shipped redesigned replacement keyboards to owners free of charge.
Q21. Launched in 1992, which Sony format found a niche with journalists but never dethroned the cassette?
Answer: MiniDisc
💡 By the format's 2013 discontinuation, Sony had still sold roughly 22 million MiniDisc players worldwide since its debut.
Q22. Which 2010 Google service triggered an FTC privacy case demanding 20 years of independent audits?
Answer: Google Buzz
💡 A separate class action over Buzz ended with Google funding $8.5 million for online-privacy education groups.
Q23. Which 2014 Kickstarter smash raised $13 million, then left thousands of backers empty-handed?
Answer: Coolest Cooler
💡 Over 20,000 of its roughly 62,000 backers never got a cooler before the company finally closed shop in 2019.
Q24. Which 1993 handheld became a punchline after a Doonesbury strip mocked its handwriting recognition?
Answer: Apple Newton
💡 Apple discontinued the entire Newton platform in 1998, on Steve Jobs's direct orders soon after his return.
Q25. Which 1995 Microsoft interface, shown as a cartoon house, sold 58,000 copies before cancellation?
Answer: Microsoft Bob
💡 Bob's talking cartoon characters directly inspired the Assistant feature Microsoft later built into Office.
Q26. Which real-time collaboration tool did Google launch in 2009, then abandon a year later?
Answer: Google Wave
💡 Its code was later handed to the Apache Software Foundation, which kept it alive as the open-source Apache Wave.
Q27. Which beloved 2005 Google service got shut down in 2013, sparking a 'Google graveyard' meme?
Answer: Google Reader
💡 Rival RSS reader Feedly picked up more than 500,000 new users within just 48 hours of the shutdown announcement.
Q28. Which free cat-shaped barcode scanner did Radio Shack and Wired give away by the millions in 2000?
Answer: CueCat
💡 Gizmodo later crowned it the single worst gadget invented during the entire 2000s decade.
Q29. Which flashy fashion e-tailer spent $135 million of venture cash before folding in May 2000?
Answer: Boo.com
💡 Its site leaned so heavily on Flash animation and pseudo-3D views that it crawled on the dial-up connections of 1999.
Q30. In July 2015, Microsoft wrote off $7.6 billion tied to which phone maker bought the year before?
Answer: Nokia
💡 Microsoft finally offloaded what remained of the feature-phone business to Foxconn and HMD Global for $350 million in 2016.
Think you know tech fails & flops?
BUZZ tracks what you’ve mastered and serves exactly what you need next. Play free — no signup to start.
PLAY FREE →