10 tech products that died in 2018

Google+
Like its predecessor, Orkut, which was shut down in 2009, Google couldn’t compete with other social networking sites and had to shut down Google+ last year. Google stated there were multiple reasons behind the decision to shut down Google+. The tech giant found that 90 percent of the user sessions accounted for less than five seconds, which is one among the many reasons. The company recently announced that Google+ will be discontinued in April, and not August. The final nail in the coffin came when the company detected a security flaw which exposed personal information of 50 million users.

Google Allo
Another product from Google that bit the dust in 2018 was Google Allo. Launched as a competitor to the Messenger app by Facebook in 2016, Google had big plans for its AI-powered Allo. The app was promoted as a personal chatbot which provided its users with an option to auto-reply to a message. Allo failed miserably against successful rivals like iMessage and WhatsApp which is why Google had to discontinue its messaging app. The data can still be downloaded though.

GoPro Karma
The second highest selling drone in the market, GoPro Karma was discontinued in January 2018. Launched in September 2016, the company could not keep the production costs low which led to low margins. Another reason for the discontinuation was the flying regulations which were difficult to bear. The company had a rocky start since the launch of Karma when they had to recall 2,500 drones in less than 4 weeks post sales.

Path
Path was a social networking app used for photo-sharing and messaging. Touted as the next Facebook, Path was launched as a stand-alone app which focused on small groups. A user could add up to a total of 500 close friends with whom they could share media. Launched in 2010, the app had 50 million before it started fading away after security concerns were raised. The company was then taken over by Kakao, a Korean company which later pulled the plug on the app in October 2018.

Inbox by Google
A feature-testing app for Gmail, Inbox was released by Google in 2014. Key features like smart reply, snoozing etc., which were added to Gmail in April last year, were tested on the Inbox app. The company announced last year that Inbox will be shut down in March 2019.

Apple Airport Express
Launched as a wireless router in 1999, the Airport Express was in production till 2016. The router had not been updated since then and Apple decided to discontinue it in January 2018 in order to focus on other revenue generating consumer products.

StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon was an online recommendation tool that allowed users to discover new content on the web based on their liking and interests. The tool launched in 2001, was sold in 2018 to mix.com, a similar discovery platform with more features and support for a larger set of mobile devices.

SnapCash
A partnership between Snapchat and SquareCash, SnapCash was launched in 2014. The mobile payment service allowed users to send payments through Snapchat’s messaging platform. However, Snapchat decided to shut down the service in 2018 as the company found it difficult to keep up with the peer-to-peer payments space.

Klout
Unlike other social media apps that showcases a user’s popularity by his/her followers, Klout was a website that rated its users ranging from 1 to 100. The ratings were calculated based on the user’s social media activities and how influential they were. Launched in 2009, it was sold to Lithium Technologies in 2014 who decided to shut it down in May 2018.