5大冤死的熱門科技產(chǎn)品

????科技公司總是在關(guān)停各種產(chǎn)品。新款平板電腦有時(shí)候也會(huì)一敗涂地。各類應(yīng)用也可能在用戶那里失寵。幾乎誰都不會(huì)在意這些關(guān)停，更不會(huì)有人有什么怨言。

????但也有例外。比如本周，谷歌（Google）宣布要讓Reader這款應(yīng)用壽終正寢后，輿論頓時(shí)一片嘩然。這是一項(xiàng)讓用戶抓取各類博文和新聞報(bào)道，創(chuàng)建自己的閱讀內(nèi)容的服務(wù)。2005年，這項(xiàng)應(yīng)用剛剛面世就贏得了大批追隨者。但當(dāng)Twitter和Facebook崛起后，它就開始每況愈下。不過Reader還是擁有大量用戶，其中很多人這次迅速反應(yīng)，紛紛上網(wǎng)批評谷歌的這個(gè)決定，要求谷歌恢復(fù)這項(xiàng)服務(wù)。

????谷歌如果不肯回心轉(zhuǎn)意的話，那么Reader也將淪為又一項(xiàng)被扼殺的用戶鐘愛的應(yīng)用。對公司來說，讓一個(gè)已經(jīng)過時(shí)或者銷售欠佳的產(chǎn)品不死不活地耗著，要么成本巨大，要么會(huì)使其偏離核心業(yè)務(wù)。但是有些案例實(shí)在讓人難以理解，比如Flip數(shù)碼攝像機(jī)盡管一直旺銷，但思科公司（Cisco）卻在2011年讓它退出了歷史舞臺。思科2009年剛以5.9億美元巨資收購了Flip的母公司，以拓展自己剛起步的面向消費(fèi)者的技術(shù)業(yè)務(wù)。考慮到這一點(diǎn)，就更加令人費(fèi)解了。

????少數(shù)情況下，公司可以把產(chǎn)品賣給其他企業(yè)，從而給這些產(chǎn)品暫時(shí)留條活路。這樣消費(fèi)者能獲得自己所要的東西——幸存下來的產(chǎn)品——而企業(yè)則能獲得一些現(xiàn)金流和公眾的好感。不過，通常情況下，這些企業(yè)的高管們寧愿躲開法律糾紛，或是出于稅收的考慮更愿意承受相關(guān)損失。今天我們就來回顧一下五項(xiàng)雖然廣受歡迎、卻仍被判處死刑的技術(shù)產(chǎn)品。

????Technology companies shutter products all the time. New tablets sometimes flop. Apps fall out of favor. Hardly anyone notices, and even fewer people complain.

????But there are exceptions like the uproar aimed at Google (GOOG) this week after it disclosed plans to kill Reader, a service that lets users create a feed of blog posts and news articles from around the Web. Reader had gained a large following after premiering in 2005, but its popularity later waned as Twitter and Facebook (FB) rose. A large number of users remain, however. Many of them quickly went online to criticize Google's decision and ask that it be reversed.

????Absent a change of heart by Google, Reader will join a short list of beloved technologies sent to the grave. Keeping an obsolete or poor-selling product alive can be costly to a company or distract from its core business. Some cases are hard to explain like when Cisco (CSCO), in 2011, retired the Flip digital video camera despite strong sales. It was all the more perplexing because Cisco had acquired Flip's parent company two years earlier for $590 million to expand its nascent consumer technology business.

????Companies could, in some rare cases, give products a reprieve by selling them to another business. Consumers get what they want -- the product's survival -- while the owner gets some cash and public appreciation. Usually, however, executives balk at the legal complications or prefer to take a loss for tax reasons. Here's a recap of five beloved technology products given the death sentence.

Flip攝像機(jī)

????2009年，思科收購了Flip的母公司，在消費(fèi)者技術(shù)上算是下了血本。Flip是一種口袋大小的攝像機(jī)，以便攜易用出名。當(dāng)時(shí)，消費(fèi)者已經(jīng)買了200萬臺Flip，使它成為消費(fèi)電子工業(yè)史上最熱賣的產(chǎn)品之一。在思科掌控下，F(xiàn)lip一直熱銷不斷。接著，思科突然宣布，作為更大規(guī)模重組的一部分，F(xiàn)lip將停產(chǎn)。最后答案終于揭曉了：思科想退出消費(fèi)者技術(shù)，以便能專注于旗下規(guī)模大得多，但當(dāng)時(shí)業(yè)績卻開始下滑的電信設(shè)備業(yè)務(wù)。毫無疑問，智能手機(jī)的崛起是做出扼殺Flip這一決策的重要因素。如果手機(jī)已經(jīng)有攝像頭了，干嘛還單獨(dú)買個(gè)攝像機(jī)呢？Flip的粉絲們認(rèn)為讓這款產(chǎn)品壽終正寢是對他們的不尊重，于是請求思科賣掉攝像機(jī)分公司。然而，思科不知出于什么原因，拒絕了這個(gè)請求。Flip就此成了公司管理不當(dāng)?shù)囊粋€(gè)經(jīng)典案例。

Flip camcorder

????Cisco bet big on consumer technology in 2009 when it acquired the parent of the Flip, the pocket-sized camcorder known for its ease of use. Consumers had already bought two million of them, making the Flip one of the consumer electronic industry's hottest selling products. Under Cisco, sales remained strong. Then Cisco, as part of a broader reorganization, abruptly announced that it would end production. Eventually, it became clear why: Cisco wanted out of consumer technology so it could focus on its slumping and far larger telecommunications equipment business. Undoubtedly, the rise of smartphones factored into the decision to kill the Flip. Why buy a camcorder if your phone already comes equipped with a camera? Fans of the Flip took the news of its mortality as an affront and called on Cisco to sell its camera division. Cisco, for unclear reasons, refused, and Flip became a case study in corporate mismanagement.