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Forgotten Apple Products that has a Long History
There is no doubt that Apple is one of the most successful companies in the world, in fact the value of its shares recently surpassed those of Microsoft, making it the most valuable technology company in the world.
But all these successes do not mean that Apple has not suffered colossal failures with some of its products, many of them failed in such a way that perhaps you never heard them mentioned. Let’s see what they were:
- Apple Newton Message Pad: A predecessor of the iPad, this small tablet was able to recognize the writing, keep your contacts and your calendar, as well as write notes and then synchronize them with your computer. Apple Newton Message Pad from Apple was one of the first devices created in the category of the so-called Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), however Apple tried to monopolize a market that at that time did not exist yet, and developed 6 different models of the Newton Message Pad, something that saturated the scarce nascent PDA market and contributed to the failure of the product. Other factors that influenced that the Newton Message Pad did not get popular were how fast the batteries ran out (4 AAA batteries and then 2 AA in more modern models), errors in the recognition of the writing, and the cost of the product, which linked the peripherals put it out of reach of many people.
- Mac G4 Cube: At a cost of almost $ 2,000 dollars, the Mac G4 Cube had a very short life (only 1 year) Although it had an innovative design, the G4 Cube broke easily, especially if the disk was locked in reader CD / DVD (which came in a vertical) and tried to force it to come out. The other factor that influenced the failure of the system was that given its unconventional design, there was not enough space inside the drawer to add expansion cards. Apple tried unsuccessfully to revive the product by adding free software and increasing CPU speed, but finally gave up and discontinued the product in 2001.
- Pippin: Apple tried to enter the market of video games with a console called Pippin. Designed to create a combination of video game and computer, Pippin from Apple entered the market just as the consoles of Sega, PlayStation and Nintendo 64 dominated the world of video games. Pippin from Apple cost $ 600 dollars, much more expensive than the other consoles of the competition, in addition there was almost no game for the console, something that contributed, along with the high cost of it to its failure. Cupertino Company partnered with the Bundai Manufacturer company to produce 100,000 units of Pippin, however it only managed to sell 42,000 of them before discontinuing production. On May 2006, PC World Magazine considered Pippin among the 25 worst technology products of all time.
- Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (TAM) from Apple: Costing the astronomical sum of $ 7,500 dollars Apple released a limited edition of the Mac to celebrate its 20 years. This product from Cupertino Company was a disaster from the beginning. The speakers emitted a constant static noise that was impossible to turn off, even when the volume was turned down completely, the technical support was minimal, since Apple had not trained enough people to handle the problems and above all, the Power Macintosh 6500 model with similar components and capacity that the TAM cost almost $ 3,000 less. Only 11,000 units were produced, although the total number of those that Apple managed to sell is unknown. Interestingly, collectors are willing to pay $ 1,000 still for a TAM.
- Macintosh TV: This was Apple’s first attempt to enter the world of TV. At a cost of $ 2,097 dollars this TV had a resolution much lower than the televisions of the time, something that definitely influenced its failure. Only 11 thousand units were produced in the short life of the product, which only lasted 4 months on store shelves.