10 Biggest Apple Failures That You Didn’t Know About

Apple today is majorly recognized for iPhone, but let’s not forget how long and what struggles did the company faced back in the years. No doubt, Apple has its fair share of success with iPad, iPhone, and iPod; unfortunately, it has also delivered a number of products that became commercial failures. 

Now that you have watched and experienced the best products from Apple, its history has some examples which can be listed in its failures.

1. The Apple III (1980 -1981)

Source = Oldcomputers

Released in 1980 Apple III was the solution to all the business requirements that Apple II couldn’t handle at that point of time. Unfortunately, this machine had numerous flaws amongst which overheating was a major one. As a result the system suffered frequent crashes and data loss.

2. The Apple Macintosh Portable (1989-1991)

Source = Ytimg

Although, there were a number of desktops in the market, very few were powerful. The Apple’s first portable Macintosh computer, featured 68000 processor, 1MB RAM that can be extended to 9 MB and also included a PDS slot for direct access to the system processor. But this Mac Portable sometimes failed to turn ON even when plugged to the battery design. Being portable but rather large, not many people bothered to carry it everywhere.[15.1]

3. iPod Hi-Fi

Source = Wikimedia

Apple released iPod Hi-Fi a stereo system that could play songs, from an individual’s iPod. The device was given a premium price, but the real problem was that the actual stereo was far from a premium product. It was nowhere close to the consumer expectations and was not worth. As a result, the iPod Hi-Fi never racked up in sales and was discontinued very early.

4. Macintosh TV

Source = Boygeniusreport

Macintosh TV was one of the biggest failures of Apple; released in 1993 the TV added a cable ready, TV tuner card into Mac Performa. It was built aiming for a hybrid device at that time. The device was the failure all around, as it was nothing with its large displace and was very expensive. Surprisingly, it remained in the market for only 4 months and got pulled.[15.2]

5. Lisa

Source = Cultofmac

Back in 1983, the Apple priced Lisa computer at the high range of $9995, this device was built a way forward as it also included a mouse, user-friendly OS, GUI display and protected memory. It was the first PC to have a brilliant GUI and even underwent many changes in the development phase. But the device was not sold at a good level and was encompassed in original Mac.

6. iMac Hockey Puck Mouse

Source = Tinypic

Though, the device was the best in everything but it lacked in efficiency. The Hockey Puck mouse came as the standard for all Macs with some consumers finding it as frustrating and inefficient to use. The mouse was designed in a circular and it was somewhat clumsy to hold and move.

7. Apple Newton (1993-1998)

Source = Oldcomputers

Apple Newton is a series of PDA marketed by the company. The device was the first to feature handwriting recognition and was first shipped in 1993. This tablet device failed miserably because of its poor battery life, screen and appearance. Its high price and errors in handwriting recognition lowered its sales. Somehow it inspired many OS designs and today we know how much we use tablets now.

8. Apple eMate (1997-1998)

Source = Staticflickr

Introduced in March 1997, the Emate was a PDA designed by Apple that featured 16 shade grayscale displays with a keyboard, infrared port, stylus pen and standard Macintosh serial ports. It also included a green-colored translucent durable case to use in classrooms. It was a good machine and inspired the Powerbook series. Unfortunately, the company never made its use beyond educational purpose, which limited its sale.

9. The Power Mac g4 Cube (2000-2001)

Source = Ytimg

G4 cube looked sleek and even garnered positive reviews, but coming at $1599 for a computer without display late in 2000’s didn’t become users cup of tea. It also ended getting up the number of awards but didn’t get off the ground in a beneficial way. In addition, the early models also suffered the manufacturing issue and lead to the cracks in the plastic case.

10. Apple Pippin (1995-1996)

Source = I0

It is an open multimedia technology, designed by apple computer. Pippin is based on the Macintosh platform and included the classic Mac OS architecture. Nintendo, Sega, and PlayStation were already in the market and running well, therefore, users ignored the Apple Pippin when it was launched in the market. This was another biggest failure by Apple.