Predicting the sales market is tricky. It's kind of like training a cat: You never know which way it's going to go and you usually end up with scratches on your face. In rare occasions it's not because you had a bad product, rather you were too far ahead of the curve with what you tried to sell people.
Reddit user, u/Send_Dem_Kitties, wanted you to dig through commercial purgatory and share:
What product do you think failed because it was "too ahead of it's time"?
Pre-Facebook
After watching Valley of the Boom, some guys invented Facebook 10 years too early when not enough people were online yet.
It was called the globe.com. I'm a 90's kid and I had never heard of it.
Motion Capture Before Motion Capture
GiphyEye Toy for PS2.
I'm not sure if it really failed as such, but it seemed to barely get utilized and they built it up as if it was gunna be a game changer at the time. Most people dont know what the hell I'm on about either when I bring it up so it seemed to have little cultural impact.
Of course then things like kinect happened which were used a lot more extensively.
Parodying A Serious Topic
Police Squad. The TV show.
Cancelled after 6 episodes... years later they use the same star and the same jokes and make 3 movies, The Naked Gun series, which were hits.
Proof that the show was ahead of it's time.
Shopping From Home
I worked for a startup in 2000 that did online grocery shopping, for traditional brick and-mortar supermarkets in the US.
It went bust in 2001, about 15 years before online shopping in America became a sustainable business model.
Would We Call Them 'Black Box'?
They used to have VHS dispenser boxes just like the Redboxes you see, now.
R.I.P. Sega
It's been mentioned in terms of individual products, but I feel overall SEGA as a company was ahead of its time in almost every regard. A lot of things that companies are doing today were first posited or tested by SEGA and met with critical or short-term success.
Star Lord Knows What's Up
I bought a Zune because their marketplace was $10 a month, and you could download any song and put it on your Zune.
You never owned the music, but it was still a better option that $.99 for one song from Itunes. Now 9 years later I'm paying for Spotify premium which is the same thing except with buggier/sh-ttier software. I have to click no!!!!! 50 times a day on that stupid "connect Waze to Spotify? Banner" that won't go the f-ck away no matter how many times I tell it to turn off!
Anyway, I don't know if the Zune marketplace was the first to do the unlimited music for a subscription, but it sure was the first one I ever came across.
You Know. That Thing. We Carry With Us. Every. Day.
Kodak digital camera- invented in the 1970s. Didn't think there was a market for them.
40 years later, they're built into cellphones and millions and millions are sold annually
This is a myth; Kodak knew the digital camera would be a hit.
The problem is, Kodak didn't make hardly any money from the sale of their cameras or film; their bread & butter was selling developing chemicals. They knew the digital camera would destroy nearly all their profit, so they made the mistake of trying to bury it so that no one would think to build one, rather than try to develop it in secret and then release at the most opportune time.
Exactly this. Kodak was a chemical company, not as much a camera company.
Redditor _ReDd1T_UsEr wanted to discuss the reasons why many of us decided to cut some people out of our lives, so they asked:
"What was the reason why your friendship ended with someone?"
Sometimes a person just has to go.
Planning Stages
Weekend Sunday GIF by DisneyGiphy"I stopped being the first to always initiate plans, and that was that."
Witty-Surround-6541
"I once asked a friend to plan our next breakfast + walk outing, since I always did that. He wrote me a letter ending the friendship. Stunning!"
fermat9996
Pants on Fire
"Habitual lying became too annoying and disruptive to tolerate."
Hosscatticus_Dad523
"When you constantly are thinking... this math ain't matching lol. People that lie all the time make me sick. I've told multiple friends that you don't have to lie to me."
"I feel so much better when someone can trust me and feel comfortable telling me a hard truth than an easy lie."
"Even if the truth made me feel some type of way, I'm still glad it was honest. I've even said thank you to people in the past that have been honest with me, good or bad! Some people just can not help lying about things. I wouldn't be able to ever keep a story straight if I did that."
__eden_
Bad Behavior
"He kept having kids with different girls and bailing on them. Coming from a 'went out for a pack of smokes' Dad myself, I just couldn't watch it anymore. Bailed after the third one. Think he's up to 6 now."
KingGuy420
"Reminds me of one of my ex-friends. She kept having kids with MULTIPLE guys (all of them were one-night stands), I don't think she even knows who the baby daddies are."
"She also kept begging me and people for money for pot, and she also bragged about having OnlyFans. She'd also make up stories about being in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend (she'd also cheat on him/tell people her and him they broke up, which they weren't)."
wisconsinking
Reasons
"I was a bad person and they ended it for perfectly sensible reasons. I would have done the same. I've changed, but I don't blame them for not reconsidering contact."
tabletopsidekick
"I’ve been there. I was a bad person and lost friendships and family relationships. I tried to apologize to everyone I hurt."
PDXGalMeow
"I also accepted that they don’t want me in their lives anymore. I learned that I made my mistakes, I learned from them, and I accept their choices. I don’t self-hate anymore and I try to be a better person in general. I hope you are doing well and practicing self-love and forgiveness."
PDXGalMeow
Money Issues
Donald Duck Money GIFGiphy"I lent them $20 and then they avoided me so they didn’t have to pay me back. Worth the $20."
BuickAssault
"I don't ever expect prompt returns of small amounts of money between my friends... we all buy each other rounds or buy the food for the BBQ or whatever. It ends up evening out over time I think we'd notice though if someone was always taking and never giving and then they'd probably get cut off too."
Badloss
In the immortal words of Cyndi Lauper... "Money Changes Everything."
Lack of Support
Happy Planning GIFGiphy"She joined a pyramid scheme selling butt-ugly leggings and it took over her whole life. When I finally told her it was negatively affecting our friendship, she accused me of not supporting her 'business.'"
LeftandLeaving9006
Oh Driver
"I was basically a taxi for my friends so I dumped them all."
Bullfrog_Little
"This one I can understand but depends on the situation. Not all of my friends had cars in high school, so our group needed to have me and my sh*tty '94 Plymouth Sundance come, or they couldn't do anything. I didn't mind at all then, but I definitely would these days."
Hoopajoops
"I remember I used to drive around with my buddies all the time before they had licenses. When one of my friends got his and a car I said sweet now you can drive me around for a bit, he replied that he wasn't gonna waste his money on gas like that. See ya, haven't really spoken to him since."
DontcallmeShirley_82
2063
"How's this for oddly specific: Friend since 1980, was hanging out at a bar in 1992 and there was a dispute of over a $15.00 bar tab. I was in the right, but whatever - he held a grudge for years."
"Ran into him in 2017 and we were both too old to care. Started to see each other now and then. 2023 and we're at this local bar for a show and got into a fight about $15.00 a ticket."
"Maybe he'll call me in 2063."
The68Guns
Exhausting
"She was a taker, constantly. When I needed something she made it about her yet again. Exhausting to be around."
LordyIHopeThereIsPie
"I'm going through this right now. Can't tell you how many texts I have from her in the past few days telling me that I need to get over myself, need to stop making myself the victim, have been a terrible friend, have never been there for her."
"She's the most narcissistic person I know and everyone does everything for her. She has one of the easiest lives ever and anytime anything bad happens to her she believes that everyone is against her and she's the victim here. It's pure insanity. There is no talking sense to people like this."
cheeseburgerwaffles
Life Changes
point pointing GIF by Shalita GrantGiphy"I've lost like all but two of my 'friends' because I stopped drinking and doing hard drugs."
ConcertTerrible8877
"Same here dude. My circle is small but hey at least it's a circle I know I can go to."
Miss_mayonnaise
Oh, how things change when the booze dries up.
How much fun were you really having?
Do you have any stories about cutting off a friend? Let us know in the comments below.