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The Ugliest Products in Tech History

All of this gear may have worked just fine, but it sure looked bad doing it. Here are 10 examples of the worst product designs in the tech industry's storied past.

Emru Townsend, PC World

Microsoft Zune Player

When Microsoft launched its "iPod killer" in 2006, the company made sure to include many of the things that made Apple's iconic players a runaway success, including great sound and an integrated music store/manager. Somewhere along the way, though, Microsoft forgot to include the iPod's sexy design, opting instead for a boxy plastic casing and a spectacularly unflattering brown color. The Redmond giant has released Zunes in other, "limited edition" colors, and did manage to achieve its somewhat modest goal of selling a million Zunes in seven months. Still, it's a bad sign when someone comes up with a Web site built entirely around the joke that no one would steal an iPod if it were hidden in a Zune casing--and people actually want to buy that casing.
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