5大冤死的热门科技产品

    科技公司总是在关停各种产品。新款平板电脑有时候也会一败涂地。各类应用也可能在用户那里失宠。几乎谁都不会在意这些关停，更不会有人有什么怨言。

    但也有例外。比如本周，谷歌（Google）宣布要让Reader这款应用寿终正寝后，舆论顿时一片哗然。这是一项让用户抓取各类博文和新闻报道，创建自己的阅读内容的服务。2005年，这项应用刚刚面世就赢得了大批追随者。但当Twitter和Facebook崛起后，它就开始每况愈下。不过Reader还是拥有大量用户，其中很多人这次迅速反应，纷纷上网批评谷歌的这个决定，要求谷歌恢复这项服务。

    谷歌如果不肯回心转意的话，那么Reader也将沦为又一项被扼杀的用户钟爱的应用。对公司来说，让一个已经过时或者销售欠佳的产品不死不活地耗着，要么成本巨大，要么会使其偏离核心业务。但是有些案例实在让人难以理解，比如Flip数码摄像机尽管一直旺销，但思科公司（Cisco）却在2011年让它退出了历史舞台。思科2009年刚以5.9亿美元巨资收购了Flip的母公司，以拓展自己刚起步的面向消费者的技术业务。考虑到这一点，就更加令人费解了。

    少数情况下，公司可以把产品卖给其他企业，从而给这些产品暂时留条活路。这样消费者能获得自己所要的东西——幸存下来的产品——而企业则能获得一些现金流和公众的好感。不过，通常情况下，这些企业的高管们宁愿躲开法律纠纷，或是出于税收的考虑更愿意承受相关损失。今天我们就来回顾一下五项虽然广受欢迎、却仍被判处死刑的技术产品。

    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摄像机

    2009年，思科收购了Flip的母公司，在消费者技术上算是下了血本。Flip是一种口袋大小的摄像机，以便携易用出名。当时，消费者已经买了200万台Flip，使它成为消费电子工业史上最热卖的产品之一。在思科掌控下，Flip一直热销不断。接着，思科突然宣布，作为更大规模重组的一部分，Flip将停产。最后答案终于揭晓了：思科想退出消费者技术，以便能专注于旗下规模大得多，但当时业绩却开始下滑的电信设备业务。毫无疑问，智能手机的崛起是做出扼杀Flip这一决策的重要因素。如果手机已经有摄像头了，干嘛还单独买个摄像机呢？Flip的粉丝们认为让这款产品寿终正寝是对他们的不尊重，于是请求思科卖掉摄像机分公司。然而，思科不知出于什么原因，拒绝了这个请求。Flip就此成了公司管理不当的一个经典案例。

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.