The Most Overhyped Technologies of the Century

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In the world of technology, hype is like the sun. A little bit of hype can be a good thing, especially for emerging technologies, by bringing attention and light to unknown technologies and products and helping them grow. But like the sun too much hype can be a bad thing, crushing bad products unworthy of hype and even making good technologies seem less worthy or even appear to be failures.

When this happens technologies become overhyped, and this new century has seen more than its fair share of products, technologies, and technology trends that received way more adulation and praise then they deserved. And many of these technologies aren't failures or flops, but instead received so much hype that it was impossible for them to ever live up to early expectations.

With that in mind I present you with this list of the ten most overhyped products, technologies and technology trends of the century. And don't forget to comment here and let me know what would make your list of overhyped technologies.

The Biggest Emerging Technology Disappointments of 2007

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When a product or technology is still emerging, it can be tough to call it a flop. In many cases these technologies are still trying to find their sweet spot when it comes to capabilities and usage scenarios.

But while it may be too early to refer to some technologies as flops, it isn't too early to be disappointed by the failures of some originally promising technologies.

(illustrations by Brian Moore)

The past year has seen quite a few exciting new technologies that failed to deliver or actually took steps backwards in their progress. In some cases this was because of overblown promises, in some because of technical limitations and some failures were due to politics and aggressive competition.

However, all of these technologies can take solace in the fact that history has shown many cases where a technology that initially disappointed eventually became a major success.

Click here to see our list of The Biggest Emerging Technology Disappointments of 2007.

MagicJack Fails to Cast a VOIP Spell

Cheap and easy phone calls sent over the Internet. That has long been the promise of VOIP services, especially on the consumer side.

For some this has meant ditching their traditional telephone company and replacing it with VOIP services such as Vonage or the Ooma system that I recently reviewed. These services can provide solid phone service and considerable cost savings in the home but haven't been that portable for users who want to use VOIP anywhere.

Software-based services like Skype and the Gizmo Project provide great portability, letting users make cheap or free calls wherever a computer and a fast Internet connection exists, but they rely on software and headphones and microphones instead of using traditional phone handsets.

Hoping to fill the void between these two types of VOIP offerings is the MagicJack, a small USB dongle device that makes it possible to plug any phone into a computer and make calls over the Internet. The MagicJack device costs $39.95, which includes a phone number and a year of service (which includes unlimited calls in North America). Additional years of service can be purchased for $19.95.

When I first received the MagicJack I was intrigued by it. Even at $39.95 for a year it is still cheaper than most competing options. And if one is traveling internationally, calls made back to the United States are still free. Combined with the small USB form factor, the MagicJack seemed like a perfect solution for road warriors who may not want to rely solely on their cell phone for long trips.

No Phone Bills Ever with Ooma

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So how much would it be worth to someone to completely do away with the monthly phone bill and never have to pay for phone calls ever again? According to a company called ooma, it's worth around $399.

That's because ooma is offering a unique Voice Over Internet Protocol proposition. Users purchase a ooma hub device for $399 and then can make unlimited calls in the United States without ever paying a monthly bill again.

I had the opportunity to test out the ooma service for the last few weeks and have mostly been impressed with their offering. Along with the standard phone service it provides a built-in second line that allows for two simultaneous calls and has very good voice mail features.

Probably the biggest drawback to ooma is the requirement for extra scout units to enable service to every phone in your home or office. The initial purchase includes one scout so two phones can hook up counting the hub and the one scout but additional scouts would need to be purchased for each extra phone.

While ooma is certainly attractive for home use I think the area where it is most attractive is in SOHO and small business environments. In these environments being able to pay a onetime nominal fee and then have no monthly bills is an excellent option and the business telecom features of the ooma hubs and scouts are a plus.

It was simple to get up and running with my ooma hub and scout. The hub includes ports for connecting to the network or directly to a broadband modem, and also includes ports for a phone and to connect to the phone lines in the home. The scout connects to the home phone lines and to a telephone and does require its own power outlet, which in some homes can limit where the scouts can go.

VOIP Goes HD

I usually get a little suspicious when the term HD, or high-definition, starts getting tossed around. Sometimes it merits the term by truly providing a superior experience over older alternatives.

But sometimes it seems like HD gets attached to an older technology mainly because the vendors of that technology are afraid that people don't really have a reason to buy new stuff from them anymore.

So which applies to the latest technology to get HD attached to it, namely VOIP. Does high definition voice over IP provide a superior quality audio experience for your business? Or will bandwidth demands and other problems leave it on the shelf?

To get a detailed look at a new product that is using HD Voice, take a look at a review done by my colleague, eWEEK Labs Senior Analyst Andrew Garcia.

Andrew is taking a look at HD VOIP and products that claim to provide a high definition experience.

Click the following link to read Andrew's review of HD Voice technology

This Week In Emerging Technology - August 22nd

Here are the emerging technology stories for the week of August 20th.

Collective Search Is Next Focus, Ask.com CEO Says - The idea of collective search isn't a bad one, though not sure if Ask.com will be able to pull it off.

Silicon Nanoparticles Enhance Performance Of Solar Cells - There's been lots of news recently on new methods to improve the ability of solar power cells, including this new nanoparticle idea. Hopefully some of these will appear sooner rather than later.

Blueprints drawn up for quantum computer RAM - Interesting proposal on how RAM would work in quantum computers.

Microsoft Moves UC Ball Forward - Over at VoiceCon lots of companies once again pushing the idea of Unified Communications.

Free VOIP Phone Calls Forever

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With the recent growth in the popularity of Voice Over IP services or voip, many have benefited from cost efficiencies and feature benefits of using the Internet to handle phone calls. For businesses VOIP has become a mature and capable platform for voice communications.

However, at home, the situation has been less clear. Sure PC-based systems like Skype have become ubiqitous, and pretty much everyone has heard about Vonage, the largest provider of VOIP services for the home. But the home market has seen some pretty down times.

Recently Sunrocket, the second largest provider, shut its doors. And Vonage has been suffering from a long running patent fight with Verizon that could still prove fatal for the upstart VOIP provider.

But despite these setbacks there are still businesses looking to provide innovative VOIP solutions for home users. The latest to come across my radar is ooma. ooma is launching a new hardware based solution that will plug into users existing phone systems and provide unlimited calling options. And interestingly, there will be no monthly fee. ooma devices will require a single hardware purchase cost (in the $400 dollar range) and then no monthly costs after that.

I spoke to ooma CEO Andrew Frame about their new product, which is just now launching its beta program.