Remembering failures: 5 memes that companies wish didn’t exist

Sometimes technology just goes wrong. These are many, many epic failures in the tech industry. It could be said that an epic fail happen every day in the Silicon Valley and around the world.

As Thomas Edison famously said before inventing the light bulb, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Learning from mistakes is a critical step in moving forward and creating great products.

But first, you have to get over your wounded pride. When things go wrong, what could be a better solution than to laugh?

While that might not be easy for Pepsi or United Airlines this week, here are five hilarious tech fail memes to help you through your most difficult gaffes.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7’s fiery memes

There’s much to be learned from this concentrated blunder.

Airports have not been the biggest fans of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. If you haven’t heard about what went wrong here, try taking one on an airplane with you. Security will confiscate it, because of its tendency to spontaneously burst into flames.

I went on an airplane a few weeks ago where the flight attendant said, “If you have a Samsung Galaxy7 Note, kindly pass it up to the front where we will toss it out the window.”

But flight attendants aren’t the only ones with a sense of humor about this situation.

Dozens of memes have been created to highlight Samsung’s massive mistake. From comparing the Note 7 to a grenade in GTA V to integrating it seamlessly into pop culture, here are a few of the funniest memes surrounding Samsung’s explosive incident.

That skipped virus scan

Most devices are equipped with an anti-virus that will catch serious problems before they occur. But not everyone keeps tabs on this. In fact, most people ignore the prompts to scan for a virus, and many don’t install antivirus in the first place.

A lot of IT professionals choose not to use antivirus and handle the issue up front. But is that really working?

According to the Ponemon Institute, there are an average of 160 successful cyber attacks each week, usually in the form of a Trojan virus.

Antivirus? Ain’t nobody got time for dat! … but they live to regret it later.

Apple and subsequent bank balance issues

There’s a reason Apple is one of the leading technology manufacturers: People love its products. But they’re not perfect.

The biggest problem is they’re expensive, and they don’t always live up to the public hype. Upgrades are often unwarranted and unwanted. What’s more, Apple hosts dozens of events each year, generating more interest than they’re worth.

As you nurse your sore bank account and wait for Apple to announce something worthwhile, here are all the memes you’ll ever need to address problems with Apple technology.

The taken username

It takes a lot of creativity to come up with the perfect username. It needs an ideal balance of numbers and a clever word that matches your personality. Some find that perfect balance, and they use the same username for everything.

But then, the dreaded error message comes up to inform you that: “username is already taken.”

Who could possibly have gotten to rocketman87 faster than you?

This meme perfectly describes the feeling you get when that happens. It might be a first-world problem, but all of us have felt the pain.

Internet Explorer

Remember Internet Explorer? If you’re under 18, you may have seen its icon on the PC desktop, but you probably have no idea what it is. The browser that was once used by nearly everyone is now virtually obsolete.

That’s probably because of all the times it failed to load web pages, or enjoyed installing toolbars. It’s not surprising that we don’t use this application anymore.

Here’s a list of 22 memes that will take you back to all the times that Internet Explorer dragged on and on.

Feature image: Rick Turoczy via Flickr (CC 2.0, resized)