No one can really predict what the “next big thing” will be. Unless, of course, you’re a Redditor talking about stocks. Those people seem to have their fingers on the pulse. Unfortunately, for the rest of us, we’ll never know the next trend until it’s already huge. Who knew you were going to be able to make money trading NFTs or dancing on TikTok a year ago? Who knows if those are blips in the mainstream or if they’re here to stay? Some people predicted what the newest thing everyone would love would be, and they were hilariously wrong.
Hindsight is 20/20. One person on Reddit asked the question: “What was supposed to be ‘The Next Big Thing’ but totally flopped?” If anyone answered “Dan’s comedy career,” you’re dead to me.
Here are the hilariously wrong predictions people made about what the “next big thing” might be:
1. A button on the fridge that said “More Milk.”
“Amazon’s shopping buttons. They pushed really hard for those and I never saw the point.” –GarrettSLB
2. Move over, Skype and Zoom… this is what’s taking over.
“My friend who studies Medicine had to install Second Life about two years ago for a class meeting. I don’t get why they couldn’t have used Skype but ok…” –jojajtyu
3. Magic parkour/skateboarding shoes.
“Soap Shoes.
These were like normal shoes, but you could grind on rails with them via an indent in the sole. If you heard of these things from somewhere that wasn’t Sonic Adventure 2, please tell me where? And please tell me where I can buy a pair?” –Pokeplushman
4. RIP to a legend.
“McDonald’s pizza.” –BuckNutley
For those of you who don’t know, McDonald’s offered family-style pizza in their dining room to compete with Pizza Hut. No one out-pizzas The Hut, and it failed. Not for lack of interest, mind you, but because the pizza took 11 minutes to cook which in McDonald’s time might as well be a decade. Still not sure why they didn’t serve cold pizza, but who am I? Just their biggest fan!
5. Make up your minds, cell phone users!
“Not entirely relevant, but I liked the trend where everybody wanted the smallest cell phone possible. For 20 years cell phones got smaller and smaller. Often being the main selling point of the phone.
Then all of sudden you could watch videos on your phone, and almost overnight the trend reversed to “larger is better.” –Buttsquish
6. One day, we’ll all be able to do this… but we won’t do it because it sucks.
“Man I remember as a kid seeing the Ninja Turtles and Dick Tracy use video coms and thinking it was so cool and wanting one for myself and now if someone facetimes me I have a panic attack.” –sofakingclassic
7. “MoviePass”
“Lmao, I had movie pass, and holy shit I couldn’t believe how much money I was able to save lmao. How the hell did anyone get this idea approved and pull investors??” –IamNICE124
Sadly, the company thought they had more pull with theaters than they actually did. The free ride is over. For $10 a month, you were allowed to see a movie anywhere in any theater. One ticket a day. Maybe it failed because no one made money? Seems like it could have been big.
8. Alternative TV shapes.
“Not sure if this one has totally flopped yet, but I noticed while in Costco the other day that there are no longer any curved TVs. If Costco is no longer carrying them then I think we can assume they’re going the way of the dodo.” –MrEngin33r
9. Never heard of it.
“Quadraphonic entertainment systems in the early 1970s, were supposed to replace stereophonic systems. Now they are chiefly remembered for inspiring the name of The Who’s second rock opera.” –TheSanityInspector
10. Which color are these discs going to be??
“HD DVDs.
Still remember half the movies being blue and the others red.” –BigMilk0
11. The best-laid plans…
“Google+ was supposed to be the answer to Facebook.” –Puzzleheaded-Art-469
12. The next big movie franchise.
“The ‘Dark Universe’ cinematic universe, starting with 2017’s The Mummy.” –JSanzi
Universal Studios was going to create a universe for all its classic monsters and bad guys, and then, after The Mummy tanked and a remake of Bride of Frankenstein failed to materialize, they scrapped the whole idea. They got people hyped about it:
Witness the beginning of a #DarkUniverse. pic.twitter.com/8g9eIbQfGa
— #DarkUniverse (@darkuniverse) May 22, 2017
13. The eliminating of constantly updating your whole phone. Weirdly, this idea didn’t make it.
“Based off the Phonebloks idea of having a Lego-like hot-swappable module phone, the idea was that you could switch out any components of the phone on the fly. Camera, fingerprint scanner, even different quality screens. Conceptually, it really looked like it could take over the phone market, as it would lead to people not having to buy whole new phones anymore, but rather replacement or upgraded parts to a phone they already liked, thereby reducing costs and increasing utility.
You don’t want a phone with 5 cameras that inflate the cost unnecessarily? Just buy a one camera module. You want a 1440P Super Amoled screen to replace your 720P regular screen? Buy one and swap it in.
However, like many Google projects, it died off for myriad reasons and the longstanding era of $1000 dollar smartphone slabs lived on.” –ShartinMyKrelis
14. Yett another Google idea scrapped.
“Google Wave. It was supposed to replace email with a more collaborative approach. Essentially it was like a dynamically-created discussion board you’d share with select people and you could have a more readable discussion than one with a bunch of forwards and CCs and the like.
I thought it was a good idea, but it flopped big time and Google got rid of it after a few years.” –jahvidsanders44
15. At least it kept you safe from fires.
“Asbestos.
Technically it was a hit! Right until it flopped when people figured out the whole ‘inhaling rockfibers is not healthy’ thing.” –Th3Cooperative