While 2006 saw its share of innovation and excellent products of 2006, it still had a few items that were released or not that just fell flat with consumers. These products were either not filling a need in the market or actually made the lives of computer users even more complicated then they already are. With that said, let's take a look at some of the items from 2006 that I feel deserve the title of PC Blunders of 2006.
If Sony wished one of its problems away, it would be the whole lithium ion notebook batteries. Due to a manufacturing error, batteries sold to a variety of companies including Dell, Apple, HP, Toshiba, Gateway and Fujitsu ended up overheating and even worse exploding. If you happen to have purchased a notebook computer in the last year, its best to check to make sure your batteries aren't affected by any of the multitude of recalls. For the most part, lithium ion batteries are quite safe, but now companies are looking into alternatives such as lithium polymers to avoid these issues.
Several years ago Microsoft released the Tablet PC with its pen driven interface but it never really took off. So, what does Microsoft do? How about design a whole new mobile platform with a pen and touchscreen as its sole interface and reduce the size? That's exactly what they did with the release of the Ultra-Mobile PC or UMPC. These tiny and lightweight computers offered lots in terms of mobility but little in terms of functionality or battery life. Add in the price tag and most users would be much more willing to buy a standard ultraportable notebook instead.
3. AMD's Athlon Processor Line
For the past several years, AMD has held the performance edge over Intel with its Athlon product line with built-in memory controller. Intel finally got around to redesigning their processor line with the hit Core and Core 2. AMD hit back with claims of improvements in performance through the updating of its Athlon processor line with the integrated DDR2 memory support over the older DDR RAM. After the products hit the streets, users were unable to see any tangible improvements in performance over the older DDR models. Looks like AMD needs to start ramping up its research for a new processor design.
At the CES show in January of 2006, Intel announced a new product branding called VIIV. This new revolutionary mix of hardware and software was set to bring about a revolution in the way PCs were used in the home for entertainment. Along with this they announced dozens of companies in deals to provide content. AMD announced a rival platform for their processors and gear called Live! Now a year after these announcements, products can be found with both of these badges but the content to go along with these is still very much absent. Maybe the two of them need to team up with Apple for some tips.
Vista officially launched to corporations but consumer have to still wait until January 2007 before they can get the OS. Over five years in development, Microsoft was claiming it to be revolutionary in terms of its interface and security. Now that it is available, will consumers be clamoring for the new OS? Most likely not. The new OS has issues with patches, device support and even software compatibility that has corporations holding off on deployment. Then there is the whole interface similarity to Mac OS X that has been out for years that was best summed up in the video from David Pogue of the NY Times.
