Some products fail without anyone noticing, while others fail dramatically and spectacularly. The Amazon Fire Phone, Red Hydrogen One, and Samsung Galaxy Beam were all launched with big names, huge budgets, and ambitious goals. These weren’t just random ideas.
Each of these phones had exciting features that sounded impressive, like 3D displays, mini projectors, and head-tracking technology, things you’d expect in a sci-fi movie. But despite all this, they all failed miserably.
The Fire Phone cost Amazon $170 million. The Red Hydrogen One, created by a company Hollywood trusted, turned into a laughingstock. The Samsung Galaxy Beam faded into obscurity, despite its futuristic claims.
So what went wrong? The answer is straightforward, but hard to accept: they focused on flashy features instead of what people needed. Until we stop mistaking exciting ideas for real solutions, we’ll keep seeing big ambitions fail.
The Illusion of Innovation
Let’s begin with the Amazon Fire Phone. In 2014, Jeff Bezos personally oversaw its development. The key selling point? A five-camera setup that tracked your head and created dynamic 3D effects on the screen. It also featured “Firefly,” a tool that let you scan real-world objects and instantly buy them from Amazon.
Sounds impressive, right? But here’s the problem: people didn’t care about 3D effects on their screens. And while Firefly was innovative, it felt invasive; it turned a phone into a live shopping cart. Add to that poor app support (no Google Play), slow performance, and a hefty $650 price tag, and you end up with a phone that completely misunderstood what users wanted.
Image Credit: The Verge
Next came the Red Hydrogen One. Red, a company known for making cinema-grade cameras, hoped to bring that same reputation to the mobile market. Their phone featured a glasses-free holographic display, a world first. But in reality, the display was grainy, the software was glitchy, and the camera underperformed. For $1,295, customers expected a revolutionary experience, but what they got felt more like a rough prototype.
Then there was the Galaxy Beam. A projector phone. Ambitious, but impractical. It was bulky, the battery drained quickly, and the projector only worked well in ideal conditions—dark rooms and still walls. Most people couldn’t justify it when they could just buy a smartphone that worked well without all the gimmicks.
Image Credit: PocketLint
Why This Keeps Happening
If you work in tech, especially in product or design, this isn’t just a case of historical failures. It’s a pattern worth understanding. And it’s not just large corporations making these mistakes; startups fall into the same traps regularly.
They become obsessed with their features. They focus on what’s cool instead of what’s useful. They build demos instead of practical workflows.
Product thinkers worth their salt know this: build from the workflow backwards. Don’t ask ‘What can we add?’ Ask ‘What are people already doing, and how can we make that better, faster, easier, or more delightful?’
The Fire Phone didn’t address a real pain point. The Red Hydrogen One didn’t advance mobile photography. The Galaxy Beam didn’t transform how we communicate or consume media. These products were technology-driven, but not user-driven. Users can sense this, even if they can’t fully explain why.
Tech Is Not the Product. The Experience Is.
We’re no longer in an era where specifications alone sell products. The best products today are seamless; they integrate so effortlessly into your life that you stop noticing the technology and simply enjoy the experience.
That’s why Notion works. Why the iPhone has stood the test of time. Why even simple tools like Google Docs outlast more “exciting” alternatives. They don’t overwhelm you with features; they mold to your habits.
Here’s the key takeaway: Don’t build to impress others. Build to serve the user. Design for the person, not for the headlines. Because when a product lacks empathy from the start, even a billion-dollar budget won’t save it. But when it’s built with empathy, even a small, humble, bootstrapped idea has the power to change everything.
Your product doesn’t need a flashy “wow” factor. It needs a meaningful “why” factor. If you can discover that, you’re already ahead of most tech giants mentioned in this article. Let’s create things that matter, not just things that shine.
If this article made you rethink the difference between building for people versus building for features, check out my in-depth article on what makes a product feel intuitive: Why Great UX Isn’t Just About UI: 4 Hidden Factors Behind Easy-to-Use Products. It goes beyond screens and buttons, exploring the subtle signals, systems, and emotional logic that make users think, “This just works.” Because let’s face it, the best design isn’t what you see. It’s what you don’t have to think about.
