By Mitchell Rukat

Every year, many products are over-hyped by both corporations and consumers alike.  Initially, everyone feels like they need to have these exciting items. Unfortunately, some of these products can be a big let down.  Moreover, they can lead to feelings of disappointment once people realize how much money they actually spent for them. In this article, I will discuss the top five let downs of 2007.

The first let down of 2007 is X-Box 360’s X-Box Live program.  On Christmas day, over 5 million people signed onto Microsoft’s X-Box Live service for the first time.  This high volume of traffic cased Microsoft’s servers to crash.  X-Box Live supports over 10 million people.  Yet, none of them could use the service because of the crash.  Many people were excited about playing X-Box Live and Halo 3 for the first time.  Unfortunately, none of them could do so on Christmas day.

The second let down is Nintendo’s Wii video gaming counsel. The Wii is an extremely popular product, and it has continued to enjoy sales from people of all ages.  However, some were not truly satisfied with their purchase.  Despite Wii’s many games, controllers, and accessories, there simply are not many games available that strike people’s interests.  Many Wii owners have a wide assortment of games that they simply do not play.

The third of the top five let downs of 2007 is the iPhone. The iPhone has a very slick design, and many people wanted one the moment that they saw it advertised on TV. Unfortunately, Apple’s decision to use AT&T as their only service provider ruined the deal for many potential customers.  In additional, some current iPhone users have begun to realize that they may have been the victim of Apple’s hype.

The fourth let down is Windows Vista. Vista, Microsoft’s newest operating system, was supposed to revolutionize the industry.  However, many of the people who have bought Vista have subsequently switched back to windows XP, the older version of the Windows operating system.  Many corporations have also stated that Vista has been a let down, and that it has caused many more problems than they had intally anticipated.  People who are thinking about upgrading to Vista should consider waiting for Microsoft to iron out all of the bugs before making the switch.

The final let down of the year is Microsoft’s Zune MP3 player. This product that was supposed to be an iPod killer.  Unfortunately, it did nothing of the sort. This over-hyped product is ugly and has has clunky controls.  In addition, its interface is not nearly as intuitive as iPod’s.  It is unlikely that this poorly designed MP3 player will significantly affect iPod sales.

Hopefully, this article has served to illustrate some of the least successful products of 2007.  Fortunately, things are already looking up for most of the products mentioned.  X-Box Live is back up and running, Wii will soon to be coming out with Super Smash Bros. Brawl and a new Mario Kart game, and Apple has been releasing software updates that increase the overall functionality of the iPhone.