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Ed Hansberry
 

Top Wireless Turkeys Of 2009

Amid a year when the iPhone 3GS was released, Android exploded on the scene after simmering in the form of the T-Mobile G1 for nearly a year and Verizon launching some great ads talking smack about AT&T's performance, there have been a few wireless blunders that are best forgotten. 2009 isn't over yet, but there would need to be something pretty spectacular to top the turkeys on this list.

Amid a year when the iPhone 3GS was released, Android exploded on the scene after simmering in the form of the T-Mobile G1 for nearly a year and Verizon launching some great ads talking smack about AT&T's performance, there have been a few wireless blunders that are best forgotten. 2009 isn't over yet, but there would need to be something pretty spectacular to top the turkeys on this list.FierceWireless has published a list of the 2009 turkeys and starts with the Blackberry Storm. As the article points out, it wasn't a flop from a sales standpoint. There was so much pent up demand for a touch screen Blackberry that when something - anything - came out, sales would be strong. The problem is the device just didn't cut it.

Windows Mobile 6.5 also made the list. It isn't that WinMo 6.5 is bad, not for 2006 anyway. It just doesn't compete well against the competition. This is a surprise to no one. Even before it shipped to consumers in October, Microsoft was downplaying it and CEO Steve Ballmer seemed downright ashamed of it. Microsoft was quick to note that WinMo 7 would finally be out in 2010 and 6.5 was just to keep things a bit fresher than aging WinMo 6.1


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There are a few others on the list, like the Garmin nuvifone, Nokia's 5800 Xpress Music and the worst cloud blunder for the mobile space, the day Microsoft's servers rendered T-Mobile Sidekicks useless.

The one device that I didn't expect to find on the list, though I think it should be, is the Palm WebOS operating system, The OS itself is fine - good even, and the Palm Pre is no slouch of a phone. The problem with it is sales have been anemic. As of today, I am not sure if the Pre has sold a million units yet, and the app store for the platform isn't exactly bursting at the seems with apps. For all the hoopla surrounding the platform for months in advance of its launch, it arrived on the scene with a minor pop, not a bang.

Can you think of any turkeys for 2009 that FierceWireless missed?


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