5 smartphones that didn't make it

If today the world of smartphones seems a market divided equally between Apple and Samsung, the last twenty years have seen the succession of more or less unsuccessful experiments and hybrids. Since the announcement of the first iPhone in 2007, companies around the world have tried to respond to Cupertino's hegemony by offering often imaginative options, including respect for tradition and attempts to stand out that ended very badly. Despite some laudable attempts, it is not difficult to understand how we arrived at a situation of almost clear duality in which, after a process of natural selection, only the strongest survived.

nss magazine has collected for you the definitive list of all the smartphones that have not made it, to remember the mistakes of the past so as not to repeat them.

Twitter Peek

In 2009, someone had what could be called the worst idea of all time: a smartphone capable only of letting you read your tweets. Although no one was able to get their hands on it, a review of the time spoke of the Twitter Peek as a device capable of showing only the first three tweets of your list with the possibility of viewing only the first half. An incredible user experience, made even more satisfying by the very slow commands and the multitude of sounds emitted by the phone every time you send or receive a tweet. As if that weren't enough, the price of the Twitter Peek was a whopping $200. A slightly exaggerated figure for a phone that could only do one thing.

Energizer Power Max P18K

You may not know it, but in 2019 Energizer decided to put aside the batteries to launch into the world of smartphones with the Power Max P18K. As expected, the strong point of this phone was the very long battery life, a feature capable not only of distinguishing it from the competition but also of making it a real brick too big by the standards of the time. With a retail price of $599, the Energizer Power Max P18K never saw the light and after a few timid appearances in technology conventions the Indiegogo project was stopped with the intention of rescheduling it for 2020. Which, of course, it didn't happen.

BlackBerry Storm

When Steve Jobs presented the first iPhone in 2007, someone in the BlackBerry offices must have gone through a moment of extreme confusion and ended up creating the Storm. Set aside the historic physical keyboard of BlackBerry phones, this model opted for a touch screen designed to emit a single and annoying sound every time it was pressed. In an article from the time, David Pogue of the New York Times compared the phone to a classic typewriter but added a multitude of bugs.

Motorola Rokr E1

Before the advent of the iPhone, it was Motorola who tried the way of the connection between telephone and iPod. Presented by Steve Jobs himself during an Apple event, the Rokr E1 could only contain 100 songs downloadable from your iTunes through a very slow USB 1.1 output. During the same event Jobs also presented the new iPod Nano, brilliantly greeted by the CEO of Motorola with the phrase: "Fuck the Nano, who wants to listen to 1000 songs?". He understood everything.

Nokia N-Gage

When we talk about the N-Gage we are perhaps talking about the history of the technological world, but above all about one of the first demonstrations of Nintendo's total hegemony in the world of portable consoles. Designed to rival the Game Boy Advance, the Nokia N-Gage wanted to combine the gaming experience with that of a smartphone in a strange hybrid that expressed all the security of Nokia, at the time the undisputed leader of the mobile world. With an ugly and not very functional design, the N-Gage presented itself to the public with only six titles, very few compared to those available at the time for the Nintendo competition. And if those buttons seem awkward to play, you should have tried making a phone call.