Worst Tech of 2013

Here, rounding up 2013’s most failed tech, gadgets or device that didn’t succeed over the year.

As every year goes by… improvement of devices, gadgets and other such things come and go. Along these successful inventions, also come failures.

HealthCare.gov

The website launched in October 2013 by the government, its purpose was for comparison on prices on health insurance plans, enrollment of a chose plans and also details Medicaid options. It’s was designed for a convenient way of signing up for health insurance. But so far, it has only brought the opposite. Its technical problems, crashing and freezing, fake websites caused so much frustration it apparently overshadowed Samsung and Apple’s launches.

Samsung Galaxy Gear

It is an Android-based smartwatch from Samsung that was released in September 2013. It was to serve as a “lifecompanion” for all Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets which runs on Android 4.3. the gear was praised to have good quality when it comes to answering phone calls and decent quality 1.9MP AF camera. But the device was overpriced, considering its inflexible strap, inconsistent notification, and poor battery life. It was to be convenient, so you don’t have to grab your phone or tablet, but instead of opening messages in Gmail, it directs you to open it on your phone.

iPhone 5C

The 5C, like the 5S also runs iOS 7 and almost has the same hardware. The only difference is that 5C does not have the fingerprint recognition, iSight camera mode, slow motion video recording mode, and the beautiful aluminum design of the 5S. The problem is because of its overpricing, there’s no difference in owning a 4S or 5 with the 5C. Apple even started cutting production orders for the 5C.

HTC One Max

Because the device is impenetrable, you cannot fix it yourself, forget DIY repairs. HTC has that one special, exclusive tool that can open the HTC One Max, so you have to send it over to them. It’s also too heavy and large, and the integrated fingertip reader is reported to fail recognizing finger swipes. The phone battery isn’t removable, so you can’t keep a spare just in case.

Windows 8.1

8.1 were launched in late October, but Windows 7 beat it for being installed by users the most in November. Actually, Windows 7 beat Windows 8.1 and 8 combined. Window 8.1’s market share grew from 1.72% to 2.64% in its first month of availability, but this was just thanks to users who are allowed to upgrade for free. So the market share fell from 7.53% to 6.66%.