It’s a good thing one bad Apple doesn’t spoil the bunch, because the company has had a lot of duds over the years.
Remembering a time before the reign of the iPhone has gotten harder, but not every product can be that successful. Especially if you’ve been in business for almost half a century. (Apple Computer was founded in 1976, when co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak hand-built computers in Jobs’ garage.)
Following are some of the weirdest and biggest flops Apple has ever made and what made people dislike them.
Apple HomePod
Year this product was first released by Apple: 2018
Original price of this product (not adjusted for inflation): $349
The first version of Apple’s smart speaker was considered overpriced and limited in function compared with its competition, which Apple acknowledged by lowering the cost to $299 a year later.
The later-released HomePod Mini is smaller, cheaper, and more popular — just $99.
Apple Maps
Year this product was first released by Apple: 2012
Original price of this product (not adjusted for inflation): Free on Apple devices
Apple has offered its own navigation software for more than a decade, but early on it was so bad that CEO Tim Cook wrote an open letter of apology encouraging people to use Google Maps instead.
What was wrong with it? Well, the Brooklyn Bridge looked like a Salvador Dali painting, and it showed the route across the Golden Gate Bridge involved driving up the side of one of its famous red towers — or straight into the water, depending on how you looked at it. Its directions also sometimes led in circles.
Apple Newton
Year this product was first released by Apple: 1993
Original price of this product (not adjusted for inflation): $699
Apple made the Newton crawl so the iPad could soar. A far cry from a tablet, the Apple Newton was nonetheless an early attempt at a practical, portable computer before the PalmPilot or BlackBerry.
Laptops existed in the early ’90s, but they were awkward to use and unaffordable for most people — thousands of dollars. The low-end model of Apple’s then-current PowerBook 100, sometimes considered the computer that made laptops mainstream, was $2,300.
Power Mac G4 Cube
Year this product was first released by Apple: 2000
Original price of this product (not adjusted for inflation): $1,799
Apple called this thing “revolutionary,” and Steve Jobs called it “the coolest computer ever,” but you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for a coffeemaker or tissue box.
It didn’t have familiar inputs for speakers or a microphone. There was no power button — you gently caressed it to wake it up or put it to sleep.
It almost looked like you couldn’t plug in anything at all because the USB ports, internet port and monitor input were all on the bottom.
Round mouse
Year this product was first released by Apple: 1998
Original price of this product (not adjusted for inflation): Included with purchase of an iMac ($1,299)
Derisively known as “the hockey puck,” this USB mouse shipped with iMacs and came in a variety of colors that matched those machines. It was a case of reinventing the wheel, poorly.
Smaller than traditional mice and with awkwardly placed buttons, this uncomfortable thing has been called “the worst mouse ever.”
U2 iPod
Year this product was first released by Apple: 2004
Original price of this product (not adjusted for inflation): $349
Apple has an inexplicable history of partnering with the music group U2. It once gave hundreds of millions of iTunes users a free U2 album, whether they liked it or not. (It was initially impossible to delete from your iPod, iPhone or computer and people were mad about it.)
That was after it had made not one but four special U2 edition iPods over a three-year span. These black and red music players were largely met with a shrug, but that might be a better reaction than anger.
Apple III
Year this product was first released by Apple: 1980
Original price of this product (not adjusted for inflation): $4,340+
Like many early computers, the Apple III looked like somebody strapped a TV to a typewriter. It suffered from Apple’s growing pains, shipping late with faulty hardware. The company struggled to overcome that bad first impression for years.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak explains in an interview:
“Originally, we planned to deliver four applications with the Apple III — word processing, a spreadsheet, business graphics, and a database program. […] But because we were having problems managing the Apple III project while we were building our management structure, we were only able to deliver our operating system — SOS — and VisiCalc, which was done by Personal Software [which later became VisiCorp]. The Apple III shipped very late and had 100 percent hardware failures.”
Urban legend has it that Apple recommended picking the Apple III up and dropping it as an official support solution.
Apple Lisa
Year this product was first released by Apple: 1983
Original price of this product (not adjusted for inflation): $9,995
Apple’s Lisa was among the first to offer computing through a “graphical user interface,” where users could move a cursor around a screen and click on images to accomplish tasks instead of needing to type out every command on a boring black screen because Windows didn’t exist.
This incredible technology could be yours for a mere 10 grand. (Which is more like over 30 grand today.) It was marketed unsuccessfully to businesses.
Fortunately, Apple gave graphics another shot with the Macintosh personal computer, which cost one-quarter of the price of Lisa and grew into a billion-dollar market in just a few years.
iPhone 6
Year this product was first released by Apple: 2014
Original price of this product (not adjusted for inflation): $199+
On the iPhone 6’s launch, CEO Tim Cook called it “the biggest advancement in iPhone history.” Users disagreed, especially when many found their phone started to bend and the touchscreen stopped working.
The iPhone 6 also frequently had issues with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and mobile data usage. It had a 22% failure rate, requiring repairs or a new phone.
