Learning From Failure: Apple's Most Notorious Flops

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From the nicotine-beige Macintosh 128K to today's sleek glass-and-aluminum iMac, the Macintosh has come a long way since its debut on Jan. 24, 1984. What hasn't changed is Apple's ability to make devices that have broad appeal. But lest we forget, the road to success has often been bumpy for Apple, and the company has had its fair share of duds over the years.

So to help celebrate 24 years of Mac, we revisit some of Apple's products (not all of them Macs) that just didn't live up to consumer expectations and market demands. As the following list demonstrates, flops often get reworked and find successful implementations in later, more successful products. Indeed, what continues to separate Apple from the rest of the industry is its ability to adapt and learn from prior mistakes. With that in mind, here's our list of Cupertino's momentary lapses in judgment

Newton
Arguably the most famous Apple flop of all, the Newton (which was actually the name of the OS and not the device) started out as a top-secret project with a lofty goal: to reinvent personal computing. During its development, the Newton took on many forms, such as the tabletlike "Cadillac" prototype, before its eventual release in 1993 as a smaller and considerably less revolutionary PDA. Although the Newton was available for six years (longer than most other Apple flops), it was a prime example of an idea that was simply ahead of its time, and sales never lived up to Apple's expectations. When Steve Jobs resumed his stewardship of Apple in 1997, one of the first things he did was to axe the subsidiary Newton Systems Group. By the following February, the Newton was dead.

APPLE PIPPIN
Every year, you hear whisperings about Apple entering the videogame market in one form or another. Yet very few people seem to remember that Apple did just that with the Pippin in 1996 -- and failed miserably. As a multimedia platform marketed by Apple and toy-maker Bandai, the Pippin was an attempt to create an inexpensive machine that could play games and serve as a network computer. The device tanked for myriad reasons: lack of software, misbranding and the fact that the market was already dominated by systems like the Nintendo 64, Sega and the Sony PlayStation.

THE TAM (TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY MAC)
Contrary to what its name implies, the TAM was released to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Apple, and not the Macintosh. Nevertheless, it was discontinued almost exactly a year after its March 1997 debut. Staying true to Apple's design prowess, the TAM certainly looked slick. Unfortunately, the computer featured a lackluster array of internal components and offered nothing new in terms of technology. Some also considered the computer to be overpriced and underpowered. The lesson for Apple? Slick design alone doesn't sell computers.

MACINTOSH TV
Long before the AppleTV and iTunes were a glimmer in Steve Jobs' eye, there was Macintosh TV. Clad in all black, the Macintosh TV was the unholy fusion of a 14-inch, cable-ready Sony Trinitron television and an Apple Performa 520. Introduced in 1993, the Macintosh TV was discontinued the following year. Its major failing: It was incapable of showing television feeds in a desktop window. In the end, only 10,000 units were ever produced. Apple continued to experiment with small-form-factor PCs with the subsequent G4 Cube and eventually saw some success with its all-in-one iMac design in 1998.

G4 CUBE
Still a highly sought-after collectors' item, the Jonathan Ive-designed Cube never quite caught on with the people it was supposed to entice: designers and web professionals. The 8 x 8 x 8-inch Cube was supposed to fill the gap between the iMac G3 and the Power Mac G4 but was lambasted by critics for its lack of a monitor and high price tag. This led to slow sales, which never really picked up. Eventually, the Cube faded into obscurity -- but only after Ive won several international awards for its design.

APPLE IIC
The fact that the Apple IIc is featured in a beach scene in 2010 is a source of endless amusement for people who actually owned one. As one collector recently admitted at the Computer History Museum's Vintage Computer Festival, "You can barely see the damn screen in the low light, let alone the full-on sunlight on a beach." The IIc (c for compact) was meant to be the first truly portable computer and it did sport a convenient carrying case, external power supply, as well as a built-in floppy drive and peripheral expansion ports in back. Unlike its Apple II brethren, the IIc lacked the internal expansion slots and direct motherboard access. While this was supposedly done on purpose, its lack of upgradeability combined with the short-lived monochrome LCD displays that were sold for use with its video expansion port meant the IIc was another example of a good idea whose time was yet to come.

THE 'HOCKEY PUCK' MOUSE
You wouldn't expect the company that helped popularize the mouse to screw up so epically on one of its own mouse designs. But Apple did just that with its almost universally despised puck mouse that accompanied the iMac G3. The USB mouse was small, awkward to control and completely unergonomic. Furthermore, the single button mouse's round shape often meant users found themselves using the mouse upside down. Apple quickly phased out the puck mouse and starting offering its Mighty Mouse instead.

APPLE LISA
The Lisa was an attempt to follow the success Apple had with the Apple II. It failed, and the Lisa remains one of the most notorious examples of Apple hubris. Granted, it was the first personal computer to have a GUI and a mouse, but Apple strayed significantly from its overriding ethos of making affordable personal computers when it released this business-oriented computer. When it debuted in 1983, Lisa (which was either named after Steve Jobs' first daughter or stood for "Local Integrated Software Architecture") cost a whopping $9,995 -- or $20,807.06 in today's dollars. Needless to say, the Lisa didn't sell very well. Businesses opted for less-expensive IBM PCs, which were already dominating business desktop computing. The Lisa was finally canned in August 1986, by which time Apple's more affordable Macintosh had already become a bona-fide hit.