We love Apple and their innovative ideas, but as the saying goes, "there's no success without failure". This post is dedicated to products that wasn't so popular amongst consumers. Every great company has a closet full of bad ideas, that's what makes them great companies. They were not afraid to take risks. Without further ado, let's take a look at some early ideas from Apple.
Next, we have the Apple Pippin. This was Apple's early attempt to get a piece of the video game console market. Unfortunately, it never took off back in 1996. When the Pippin was released, there were fewer than 20 games available that was compatible with the console. Apple originally marketed it as a network device that plays games, but it had a slow 14.4 kbps modem and it loaded games extremely slow.
The Apple G4 Cube was a extremely compact desktop computer that was discontinued back in 2001. It measured 8" x 8" x 8" and had a PowerPC G4 processor the was clocked at 400 - 500 MHz. The G4 Cube had an introductory price of $1799 which price this computer right out of the competitive market.
When Apple started shipping the Hockey Puck Mouse with the iMacs, consumers were outraged. It was a complete disaster and sort of gave Apple a good wake-up call. This mouse was uncomfortable to use and not very functional. This mouse was once rated as one of the worse products in history.
The Apple MessagePad 2000 never really took off back when PDA's were popular. But the iPad has more than made up for lost sales. I wonder if there were any inspiration that came from the MessagePad? My imagination is running wild. When PDA's were phasing out, one of the team members pulled out this device and said... "I've got an idea"
Oh by the way, the MessagePad didn't support Adobe Flash either.
The Macintosh Portable was not so portable. When it was released, the Mac Portable weighed over 16 pounds due to it's lead acid battery. The "laptop" had a Motorola 68000 processor and 1 MB of RAM that was as slow as molasses in January. The Mac Portable had a black and white display and was bigger than most briefcases. Apple again priced the device at a ridiculous price of $6500.
The Motorola Rokr was an Apple phone and it marked a quick end to the relationship between Apple and Moto. It has iTunes but the interface was very sluggish and people quickly abandoned the device (including Apple). Motorola accused Apple of undercutting their phone with the iPods but Apple had their own ideas of multimedia smartphones.
We can really say this device flopped because it never went into production. This prototype device was designed by German-American Harmtut Esslinger and it looks like a tablet with a phone. I'm sure there was some inspiration that came from this design.
Stayed tuned for more unseen Apple products.
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