Apple Incs' Misses ...

by Ziuby

In our earlier blog Apple Inc Hits and Misses we promised you with a follow-up blog on that gave a detailed idea about which appleproducts faired exccellent in the market and the ones which didn't. Everyone knows Apple excels at innovation and thinking differently. It's the company that gave us #iPods and #iPhones, #iPads and #MacBooks...(and the list goes on and on and on).But not every Apple invention was a grand slam. Here's a look at some Apple products that just didn't hit their intended mark.

1. The Apple III (1980-1981)

The Apple III was announced on May 19, 1980, during the National Computer Conference in Anaheim, California.  It runs twice as fast as the Apple II and has twice as much memory - 128k of RAM. It is also the first Apple computer to have a built-in floppy drive, a 143k 5.25-inch floppy drive, has 4 internal expansion slots & a heavy piece of aluminum.
Steve Jobs, who supervised the project, gave ridiculous demands to the development team including dimensions that were too small to fit all the components, and no cooling fan, because they were 'too noisy and inelegant'.
The result was that the motherboard got hot and warped, eventually causing some chips to come loose in their sockets, which would cause system malfunctions. One popular fix was to pick up the console and drop it onto the desk, temporarily re-seating the loose chips.

2. Apple Newton (1993-1998)

The built-in handwriting recognition is the Newton's most unique and interesting ability, it's one of the first-ever Personal Digital Assistants (PDA). Unfortunately, at about 4.5 x 7 inches, and almost one inch thick, the Newton is really too large and heavy (almost one pound) to be considered pocket-size. The non-backlit LCD screen, like most, has poor contrast and is difficult to read.

3. Apple PipPin(1995-1996) 

Apple PipPin was a system developed by Apple to be licensed by third parties, Bandai and Katz Media were the only companies to acquire production licenses.It uses CD-ROM discs, had a computer operating system. There was also some accessories to enhance the base system, such as a modem, keyboard and mouse, But it faced competition from the Nintendo 64, Sony Playstation, and Sega Saturn, so game developers and users ignored the Pippin.

4. Apple eMate (1997-1998)

Seventeen years ago, Apple released its first and only touchscreen laptopwhich ran Apple’s Newton PDA OS, With a 25MHz ARM CPU, 1MB of RAM, and 2MB of flash memory. Apple wanted to put a cheap, portable, rugged computer in the hands of every child.Indeed, the eMate was one of the cheapest computers Apple had ever made. Interestingly, the eMate 300 did not gain significant traction in the educational sector.

5. The "Hockey Puck" Mouse (1998-2000)

The apple “Hockey Puck” mouse is the Apple’s first USB mouse.Released with the iMac in 1998 and included with all successive desktop Macs for the next two years. The shape of the mouse has changed over the years, but with one exception they all fit the hand well. That exception was the round "Hockey puck" USB mouse which is widely considered one of Apple's worst mistakes. Curiously, Steve Jobs mentioned that it was the best mouse ever created. Fat lot he knows! Or maybe he was only judging it by its visual design – it was quite stylish – and not its usability. There was a great rejoicing when Apple discontinued the round mouse in 2000,replacing it with the lozenge-shaped Pro Mouse that used the entire mouse as a button.

 

Although these are just a few , there are several more that just didn't get any traction in the market. Still one must applaud and acknowledge the persistence of Apple. The have never left the line of innovation and technological art and that is the reason for their multiple products that did exceedingly well and captures the heart and minds of tech-savvy people and turned them into loyal followers.

Keep following and wait for our follow-up blog on Apple Incs' Hits. We will list out all the best products of Apple so far. 

#ziuby