Analysis: Why Spotify's 'Car Thing' was destined for the hardware graveyard

FILE PHOTO: The Spotify logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 3, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

LOS ANGELES/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Spotify Technology SA's Car Thing player is now a thing of the past.

The world's leading audio streaming service on Wednesday announced it would discontinue the device just five months after it became available to all users in the United States. In doing so, Spotify became the latest software technology company to stumble in an attempt to build hardware.