Inventions that were going to change the world – but didn’t

Every new invention is supposed to be the "next big thing" – and some are. The cellphone, the PC, the plane: all inventions that revolutionized the way we live our lives and far surpassed their initial hype. But some inventions don't quite measure up to the fanfare that precedes their release. These end up in the scrap bin of history. Check out what inventions we all though would revolutionize our world... but only ended up on this website list.

1. The Segway

Red Huber/ Orlando Sentinel/AP
A group of disabled veterans ride Segways in Orlando.

Steve Jobs said it would be bigger than the PC. Venture capitalist John Doerr (who backed Netscape and Amazon) said it would be bigger than the Internet. Today? The Segway hasn’t exactly lived up to its early-Millennium hype.

In 2001, a journalist writing a book about the invention of the Segway, leaked the impending release of a new transport machine called “Ginger” to the tech website Insider.com. “Ginger,” which alluded to the light-stepping grace of actress/dancer Ginger Rogers, was the Segway: a balance-sensitive machine that could transport a human at about 13 m.p.h. and last for a day on only 5 cents-worth of electricity. The story – plus glowing pre-release reviews from Mr. Jobs, Mr. Doerr, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, among other tech giants – spurred huge hype and pre-orders from the National Park Service and the United States Postal Service, and more than $90 million in venture capital funds. Inventor Dean Kamen said it would be to the car what “the car was to the horse and buggy.”

After its release in 2002, however, the Segway quickly sputtered to a halt. Since Segways could go up to 13 m.p.h., they were not allowed on most sidewalks. However, they also went too slow for many roads, leaving customers unsure of where to ride them. Plus, the $4,950 debut price put the machines far out of budget for the average consumer. But the problems didn’t end there. In 2003, Segway recalled all of its devices on the market (only 6,000 at that point) because customers were injured falling off the machine when the battery was low. By 2004, Segway was out of its initial investment money and would have to mortgage its factory.

Since then, Segway has been able to bounce back a bit, gaining contracts with police departments, security companies, and golf courses, and has seen 50 percent sales growth per year since it was first released. For now, however, it appears the most Segways have changed is the state of the tourism industry, with Segway tours in nearly every major city in the United States.

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

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If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

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