The biggest tech disappointments of 2016: Galaxy Note 7, Yahoo hacking, and more

It was hailed as the best smartphone, and also the contender to the iPhone 7 Plus. The reviews called it the best Android phone, but that didn’t last. Samsung’s much loved Galaxy Note 7 was prone to heating up and catching fire, resulting in multiple injuries for consumers across the world.

Samsung had to recall the Galaxy Note 7 not once, but twice, and finally the company pulled the plug on the product and announced it was ending production for the same. The company estimates a loss of close of $5 billion thanks to the end of Note 7 phone. More so, Samsung still has no clear answer on what caused the Galaxy Note 7’s battery to malfunction.

Also read: The death of Samsung Galaxy Note 7

Smartwatches and their demise

It was a terrible year for smartwatches, as even market leader Apple struggled and saw sales dip. Besides Apple, Google’s Android Wear saw no new big launches, and it was reported that Lenovo won’t be introducing a new version of the Moto 360 anytime soon.

Fitbit announced it was acquiring Pebble and the Pebble watches will no longer be manufactured.

The year also saw the demise of Pebble, the kickstarter project that started a smartwatch following among early adopters and loyalists. In December 2016, Fitbit announced it was acquiring Pebble and that Pebble watches will no longer be manufactured.

Also read: Pebble smartwatches are now dead: For an early adopter, this is sad news

Yahoo data breach

Yahoo’s massive data breach was one of the worst and biggest ever. In September, Yahoo announced that over 500 million user accounts were compromised and hacked advising users to change passwords. Worryingly the hacking took place in 2014, and it took Yahoo two years to alert users of the same.

Yahoo’s massive data breach was one of the worst and biggest ever.

Then in December, it was revealed that more than 1 billion Yahoo accounts were hacked, and this took place in 2013. The stolen data included names, email addresses, date of birth, telephone numbers and encrypted passwords; in fact hackers even had managed to get access to Yahoo’s proprietary ‘Cookie’ technology, which allowed them to access accounts even without a password.

For Yahoo, 2016 was perhaps one of the worst years ever, and it will be tough for the company to regain consumer trust.

BlackBerry gives up on hardware

BlackBerry finally announced it would halt in-house production of smartphones, marking the end of an era for the Canadian technology firm. BlackBerry will depend on partners to manufacture the phones and instead will focus on software, security and management; it is relying on TCL to make and distribute its phones in the future.

BlackBerry once dominated the smartphone market, but its position was challenged by Apple with the iPhone.

BlackBerry once dominated the smartphone market, but its position was first challenged when Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, and later Google’s Android emerged as the big winner. BlackBerry recently released two smartphones, the DTEK50 and DTEK60 in the market, which are manufactured by TCL.

Also read: BlackBerry to stop making its own signature phones 

Fake news

In this mobile-first world, social media has emerged as the top source for consuming news. Facebook and Twitter are growing as news sources for many of us, but 2016 highlighted the exact problems with this trend.

Facebook in particular, has come under heavy criticism for its failure to spreading fake news during the US elections. Stories claiming that the Pope had endorsed Donald Trump or how an FBI officer investigating Clinton’s emails had died were shared widely on Facebook, even though they were fake. Twitter too came under criticism for failing to curb false information from spreading quickly. For instance, messages about how pro-Hillary voters could do so via text were shared on Twitter, which was misleading.

Facebook in particular, has come under heavy criticism for its failure to spreading fake news

While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was initially reluctant to admit that the spread of fake news on the social network was to blame for the election outcome, he later announced a slew of measures to tackle this problem.

Also read: Yahoo confirms one billion accounts hacked: Here’s what happened

Modular smartphones

The concept of a modular smartphone on paper is a big deal. But, somehow we aren’t still convinced with modular smartphones, especially when it comes to their implementation. LG G5’s biggest selling point over the Galaxy S7 was its modular nature; you could snap off its bottom piece of the LG phone to swap the battery, or replace it with a camera module or a Hi-Fi audio module.

However, the company’s approach was half-baked and it didn’t win any rave reviews. Plus these attachments (or “Friends as LG likes to call) were sold at high prices and mostly unavailable for purchase.

LG’s approach was half-baked and it didn’t win any rave reviews.

Google also announced it had dropped plans for a modular smartphone with interchangeable parts. The death of Project Ara was seen as a big blow to the modular smartphone dream.

For now, modular phones have not really emerged as a convincing alternative. Also, there is no set standard in place to make a hardware ecosystem for modular smartphones. Google had a chance to do so, but it missed out. For now, the perfect modular smartphone is still missing.

Also read: Google shelves Project Ara ‘modular’ smartphone

Twitter under pressure

For Twitter, 2016 has not ended its troubles. Its monthly active users remain at around 330 million and the social media platform has not seen the rapid growth that it had once hoped to achieve. Instagram has already surpassed Twitter in terms of both monthly active user base, and the daily active users.

There were also reports that Twitter was up for sale, with Salesforce being among the top contenders. Others potential buyers included Microsoft, Alphabet and the Walt Disney Company. It remains to be seen if 2017 will prove to be a better year for Twitter.