Tech/Industry Failures Hit $1 Price, 0 Ships

Technological lifecycles are defined by rapid obsolescence and failure to adapt, exemplified by Amazon’s Fire Phone, which plummeted in value months after its 2014 launch due to its 3D sensory features, eventually selling for less than one dollar 1. Supporting this trend of swift decline, the XSLT technology has effectively ceased operation following Google’s decisive action 6. Building on this theme of replacement, the Material for MkDocs team is proactively replacing the unmaintained MkDocs (stagnant since August 2024) with Zensical, promising 5x faster rebuild times for docs-as-code workflows 3. Meanwhile, industrial sectors face starker consequences when adaptation lags. The UK shipbuilding industry, which controlled 80% of global tonnage by the 1890s, failed to adopt WWII-era novel methods, causing output to collapse from 57% in 1947 to under 1% by the 1990s, building zero commercial ships by 2023 5. These narratives of rise and fall are punctuated by legal friction, such as the unspecified lawsuit initiated by Nintendo 4. Even in creative domains, foundational moments persist; the 1996 Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie fight between Ryu and Sagat cemented a darker storytelling legacy for Capcom 2. Ultimately, technological dominance requires constant evolution; failure to adapt leads directly to replacement or collapse [1, 5].