There's fashionably late, and then there's tragically late. Plenty of perfectly good technology has perished merely because it was late to the party.
In a time when new products come to market daily and technological development is flying at lightning-fast speed, timing is critical. A product that's late to market runs the risk of looking like a copycat, running up against an established fan base, and contending with consumer reluctance to reinvest. We are seeing some of this with the introduction of Google + and Facebook video chat.
Companies aren't the only ones to lose out when they produce a tardy product that flops. The customers who bought the product can be left brokenhearted, without support, and with an item that's only value might come years later as a curiosity or nostalgia bid on eBay.
Take a look at some extinct technology and some that's on the endangered list in our story.
Digital Compact Cassette
In the very early 90s, digital audio tape (DAT) had the admired qualities—sound quality and storage capacity—of CDs, but not their perceived delicacy. Because of this, DAT was seen as a likely successor to the audiocassette. There was a glitch: a DAT cassette is not the same size as a standard audiocassette. So consumers would have to purchase a new system (and new cassettes) to move over to the format. Enter Phillips. Phillips banked on the popularity of the DAT format by producing the DCC (Digital Compact Cassette) and an accompanying player/recorder in 1992. It persisted in pushing the format over CDs, but like the Sony MiniDisc, eventually, it had to give up the fight.
Sega Dreamcast
While the Sega Dreamcast itself was ahead of its time, it was already too late for Sega when it showed up. Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft were strong competitors. The Dreamcast was revolutionary, featuring a modem (albeit 56-Kbps dial-up), in-game voice chat, and downloadable content. It was beloved by many, including LulzSec, who Tweeted its support to Sega during the company's recent hacking woes: "@Sega - contact us. We want to help you destroy the hackers that attacked you. We love the Dreamcast, these people are going down." Even though over 500,000 Dreamcasts were sold during its first week on sale in North America, Sony's PlayStation 2 decimated the Dreamcast's sales months later, leading Sega to exit the console market.
HD DVD
You could just as likely have been hearing "Now on HD DVD" at the end of every commercial for a new movie release. With the advent of HDTVs came the need to record and play back HD content. Two methods emerged: Blu-ray and HD DVD. The former was backed by Sony and Philips and the latter was supported by Tohsiba, NEC, and Sanyo. Differences between the two formats were near-negligible. Blu-ray was out of the gate in February of 2002 and HD-DVD in August. Sony's reach was extended because it's also a movie studio and a game console manufacturer. Soon after the release of the PlayStation 3, with its built-in Blu-ray drive, the format war was over. In the wake of less than stellar sales in either format, studios and retailers began pulling away from HD DVD and going with Blu-ray. By 2008, HD DVDs were officially a thing of the past.
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