From Amazon Glow and CNN+ to Google Stadia and Lego Mindstorms, let’s take a look back at the products and services that took a bow this year.
This year saw the usual introduction of next-gen smartphones, laptops, operating systems, and smart home devices, with a few unique offerings thrown in there, too. But for all the innovative tech that made headlines or passed through our labs in 2022, there were just as many products and services that powered down for good.
It’s time for our annual look at the tech that died this year. Some services have been around for ages and we are just now saying farewell to the last vestiges of a once-great brand. Others went belly up in less than a month. Read on to see what the major companies—Amazon, Meta, and Google—kicked to the curb in 2022, as well as a month-by-month rundown of other products that ended up in the tech graveyard.
AmazonAmazon Books in Manhattan’s Time Warner Center on May 25, 2017 Amazon Brick-and-Mortar Retail Stores
After helping decimate mom-and-pop bookstores (as well as retail behemoths like Borders), Amazon entered the space itself, opening the first Amazon Books—a physical representation of its online store—in Seattle in 2015. It then branched out with themed pop-up shops, 4-star product stores, Go cashierless convenience stores, and Whole Foods supermarkets. But while Whole Foods and Go stores live on, Amazon announced in March that it would shut down brick-and-mortar retail stores and pop-up shops—68 US and UK stores in total.Amazon Care Telehealth Service
Amazon raised eyebrows this summer with its $3.9 billion acquisition of US primary care clinic provider One Medical. Last month, it also tipped plans for Amazon Clinic, a message-based portal for treatment of things like eczema, hair loss, migraines, sinusitis, and UTIs. But it also gave up on other healthcare-related endeavors, like Amazon Care. The virtual and in-home health service launched as an internal health-care offering for company employees before expanding to partners like Silicon Labs, Precor, Amazon-owned Whole Foods, and Hilton. But “customers did not see the value in the service,” Amazon said in August. This month, it also dropped support for Alexa HIPAA-compliant programs.Other tech Amazon killed in 2022: Amazon Glow
Amazon GlowAmazon Glow: Emerging from Amazon’s Grand Challenge moonshot laboratory, this combination video screen and projector allowed for virtual chats while reading, drawing, and playing games with far-flung friends and family. But lackluster sales means an early demise for the pricey Glow device (not to be confused with the still-available Echo Glow).
Amazon Ambassador ProgramAmazon Ambassador Program: The “FC Ambassador” program paid warehouse employees to tweet positive messages about working conditions at the company’s fulfillment centers. But they fell flat amid reports of poor working conditions for drivers and warehouse workers, as well as union-busting tactics from Amazon. The company quietly pulled the plug on the ambassador program in January.
Amazon DriveAmazon Drive: Amazon Drive, formerly Amazon Cloud Drive, launched in 2011 to provide cloud storage, file backup, file sharing, and photo printing. However, the focus is now shifting to Amazon Photos. The Amazon Drive apps have been removed from the iOS and Android app stores, and support for uploading files on the Amazon Drive website ends on Jan. 31 ahead of a full shutdown on Dec. 31, 2023.
Wickr MeWickr Me: The free encrypted messaging app will stop accepting new user registrations on Dec. 31 and will cease operations a year later. The platform, which offers secure end-to-end encrypted messaging, was acquired by Amazon Web Services in June 2021, but going forward, Amazon will focus on its non-consumer paid platforms AWS Wickr and Wickr Enterprise.
Amazon Cloud CamAmazon Cloud Cam: As Amazon turns its attention toward newer acquisitions like Ring and Blink, it’s dispensing with the five-year-old Cloud Cam.
Sold by Amazon Program: This was marketed by Amazon as a way to help sellers move their products, but Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said it violated antitrust laws. “Amazon unreasonably restrained competition in order to maximize its own profits off third-party sales, [which] constituted unlawful price-fixing,” he announced in January. The company was hit with a $2.25 million fine and subsequently shut down the “Sold by Amazon” program.
Fabric.comFabric.com: Amazon acquired Fabric.com in 2008 to bolster its craft and hobby materials sales, but it informed employees of the shutdown in October.
Selz: Similarly, Amazon shut down Selz, an e-commerce platform it acquired in 2021.GoogleGoogle booth at the 2019 GDC Game Developers ConferenceGoogle Stadia
After months of rumors (and denials from the search giant), Google finally announced in September that it planned to shut down its Stadia game-streaming service. Stadia, which launched in November 2019, failed to resonate with consumers, Google said. In PCMag’s review, we found that Stadia offered a high-quality gaming experience on the phone and PC, but lagged on TV, while the launch library and pricing structure were disappointing. For now, existing players have access to their library and play data until Jan. 18, 2023, and Google is issuing refunds for hardware and game and add-on content purchases.Google Hangouts (Classic)
Google has been prepping for the demise of Google Hangouts since 2018, and this year it finally forced everyone to make the transition to Google Chat. If you’re not a prolific user of Google’s chat apps, you may not have noticed, as the company automatically transferred old Hangouts conversations to the Chat app, which is now the default chat experience inside Gmail. But Google loves nothing more than phasing out products and swapping in alternatives with seemingly identical functionality and a new name; remember the puzzling Google Meet and Google Meet (original) transition this summer?Other tech Google killed in 2022:Google OnHub routers
Google OnHub routers: Introduced in 2016, OnHub routers made it easy to bring dual-band 802.
