Top 30 Apple Fails

Top 30 Apple Fails

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at apples so rotten that they practically spoiled the whole bunch… not to mention the company’s stock value.

#30: The “I” in iOS 11
From iMacs, to iPods, to iPhones, to iPads, one letter has defined the Apple brand since 1998. It’s “I” by the way. This made it all the more ironic when iOS 11 received a glitchy update in November 2017. As many attempted to type an uppercase “I,” a capital “A” appeared followed by a Unicode symbol. This would be inexcusable with any of the alphabet’s 26 letters, but if one should work above all others (on an Apple product no less), it’s “I.” This wasn’t the operating system’s only hiccup with Adam Clark Estes of Gizmodo saying the update “turned [his] phone into a bug-infested carcass of its former self.” Yet, this particular bug put the “I” in incompetence, even if it was only temporary.

#29: Cylinder aka “Trash Can” Mac Pro
You may spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on the latest Apple product. With technology constantly evolving, though, that shiny new toy will eventually wind up in the junk drawer, at a garage sale, or even in the trash. Critics who think Apple products are overpriced garbage had a field day with the revamped Mac Pro in December 2013. Noticing the cylinder shape and aluminum aesthetic, it was unofficially dubbed the “Trash Can” Mac Pro. While some employees would come to embrace the name, the “Trash Can” received further criticism for its limited capabilities. Apple acknowledged that the “Trash Can” was a misfire, but it took six years for the Mac Pro to receive an upgrade, which switched back to the classic “cheese grater” design.

#28: Who Jacked My Headphone Jack?
For all the innovations that Apple has introduced, the company is also known for taking certain elements away. Among the most notorious extractions came with the iPhone 7, which didn’t include the customary 3.5 mm headphone socket. Although the device was still compatible with headphones, users would either need a wireless pair or one with the Lightning connector. Unless you went wireless, you couldn’t simultaneously charge your phone and listen to music without an adapter. In retrospect, some have defended this move, which made AirPods the new norm, simplified the iPhone’s design, and amounted to other performance improvements. For traditionalists, though, removing the headphone jack was inconceivable and they’re still grieving the loss years later. The socket is gone, but a void remains.

#27: Butterfly Keyboard
If you were a Mac user between 2015 and 2019, you’ll be familiar with the “butterfly keyboard,” which got its nickname from a two-sided switch that resembled the insect’s wings. It was also thinner than Apple’s past keyboards. While perhaps not as heavy, the butterfly keyboard was more likely to collect dust and be susceptible to damage. Most notably, the butterfly keyboard struggled to serve its core function with many reporting that certain characters repeated and sometimes failed to type. Apple offered free repairs, but this wasn’t enough to satisfy some customers. More than one class-action lawsuit was brought against Apple, which settled for $50 million in 2022. By this point, the butterfly keyboard had been phased out, clipping its wings for good.

#26: FireWire
Introduced in 1999, IEEE 1394 - or FireWire - was seen as Apple’s answer to USB ports. FireWire was touted for reportedly being faster than USB, although some general consumers didn’t see the difference. While FireWire ports were incorporated into Apple products, third parties would have to seek licenses if they wanted to include them. Few lept at the chance, as most consumers were accustomed to USB anyway. It was especially hard for FireWire to compete without support from Intel, which helped put USB on the map. Although FireWire was a player for nearly a decade, Steve Jobs admitted defeat in 2008. The ​​IEEE 1394 interface still technically exists, but Apple has since moved on to Thunderbolt, which it developed with Intel.

#25: MobileMe
Apple entered the 21st century with iTools, which offered online services like web page building and data storage. Best of all, Mac users could access iTools for free… until 2002. iTools was rebranded as .Mac, implementing a subscription model. While the price upset various users, it was a smoother transition than MobileMe’s introduction in 2008. Replacing .Mac, MobileMe immediately faced technical problems as users struggled to sign up for $99 annually. Upon overcoming that hurdle, they were met with numerous syncing and server issues. As angry as users were, few were more infuriated than Steve Jobs, who reportedly told the MobileMe team that they “tarnished Apple’s reputation.” iCloud ushered in a new era toward the end of 2011 while MobileMe went defunct in 2012.

#24: Batterygate Settlement
Most users probably would’ve held onto their older Apple devices if it weren’t for one thing: battery life. Many avoid iOS updates, fearing they’ll intentionally slow down devices to render them obsolete and force them to purchase new ones. Apple claims this isn’t the case, arguing that updates are designed to prevent aging batteries from shutting down. Nevertheless, Apple faced a class-action lawsuit from over three million unsatisfied users. After six years in court, Apple agreed to pay up to $500 million to customers who experienced battery performance issues on certain products before December 2017. Despite paying up, Apple released a statement saying, “The settlement is not an admission of liability, wrongdoing, or fault on the part of Apple, which denies the allegations against it.”

#23: eWorld
It’s funny to think that Apple once lived in the shadow of AOL, formerly known as America Online. Looking to compete with AOL’s online services, Apple launched eWorld in June 1994. Of course, Apple licensed AOL’s tech, but eWorld took a unique approach with a display that resembled a virtual city. The post office represented email, the community center was for chat rooms, etc. While the presentation was creative, the service cost $8.95 per month with additional hourly fees. Apple did little to promote the expensive service, which only had around 150,000 when it shut down in March 1996. Meanwhile, AOL had about 5 million users and it only became more dominant with Instant Messenger’s launch in 1997.

#22: Apple Cyberdog
Apple made a little robotic dog!? No, Cyberdog was far less exciting and adorable than it sounds. Getting its name from a New Yorker cartoon turned meme, Cyberdog was an Internet suite developed through the Apple-owned OpenDoc. Cyberdog fell short of its competitors, using far more memory than ideal. Adding to the inconvenience, you could only view documents if the application was compatible with OpenDoc’s file format. Not long after Cyberdog 2 was released in 1996, Steve Jobs returned to Apple. This spelled the end of OpenDoc with Cyberdog inevitably following in April 1997. That same year, Apple entered a deal with Microsoft to make Internet Explorer the Mac’s default browser. Apple went on to develop Safari while Cyberdog remains a Wayback Machine relic.

#21: eMate 300
We’ll cover the Apple Newton in greater detail soon enough, but we wanted to highlight an especially curious addition to that defunct series. The eMate 300 stood out with a green exterior and clamshell design. While it had a touchscreen like other Newton products, the eMate was the brand’s only device with a traditional keyboard. The technology was innovative and the $799 price was reasonable. For whatever reason, though, Apple limited this nifty device to the education market. Never reaching the mainstream, the eMate essentially fell through the cracks with Apple not even revealing its sales figures. It didn’t help that the eMate debuted in 1997, one year before it would meet the same fate as its Newton brethren.

#20: The PowerBook 5300
Introduced in August 1995, this laptop was practically a movie star, most famously appearing in “Independence Day,” which tied into Apple’s “The Power to Save the World” campaign. One month after that blockbuster debuted, the PowerBook 5300 was discontinued. The laptop didn’t wipe out any aliens, but multiple units caught fire, one burning down a Chinese factory. In addition to the recalls and plummeting stock, the PowerBook 5300 wasn’t helped by its price. The cheapest model sold for $2,300 while the top-end version cost $6,800. That’s about $4,600 and $13,700 today. Considering that you can buy a modern MacBook Pro for somewhere between $1,300 and a little over $3,000, it’s not surprising that the PowerBook 5300 went up in flames.

#19: The iPhone 6’s “Bendgate”
The iPhone 6 was met with several criticisms at launch, from performance issues to accusations of the product ripping off hair. The complaint that gained the most attention was the iPhone’s tendency to bend. We’re not just talking about users purposely putting pressure on their iPhones. The product could reportedly curve in one’s pocket if they were wearing tight pants. Shortly after introducing the iPhone 6, Apple argued that they received only nine complaints about its flexibility. Most consumers would agree that’s nine too many. Amid a lawsuit regarding touchscreen problems, it was revealed that Apple knew the latest iPhone was between 3.3 and 7.2 times more inclined to bend than the previous version. Is this an iPhone or a Betty Spaghetty doll?

#18: Macintosh TV
While Apple TV has seen great success in recent years, the company’s initial venture into home entertainment left consumers changing the channel. Hitting the scene in 1993, Macintosh TV was a hybrid device that served as a television and computer. With streaming becoming the norm a couple of decades later, the device was ahead of the curve. It was too ambitious for the time, however. In addition to limited graphical capabilities and slow performance, you couldn’t use the computer and TV simultaneously. Throw in a price tag of just over $2,000, and it just made more sense for consumers to buy two separate devices. Only 10,000 Macintosh TVs would be manufactured during its roughly five months on the market.

#17: Macintosh Portable
Apple’s laptops have come a long way since the Macintosh Portable. That said, there was nowhere to go but up. You thought the PowerBook 5300 was overpriced? With the hard drive, Macintosh Portable launched at $7,300 - more than $17,000 today! Apple was nonetheless confident that they would sell 50,000 devices by the end of its first year. It became clear that wouldn’t happen with just 10,000 sold during the first quarter. Aside from being too costly, this “portable” device was deemed “too big” and “too heavy.” The Macintosh Portable didn’t compensate in performance with people criticizing the display and battery life. After seven months, Apple lowered the price by $1,000, but the laptop barely lasted another year on the market.

#16: iPod Hi-Fi
This speaker system goes to show that an accessory shouldn’t be as expensive as the main attraction. In 2006, you could buy a 60 GB iPod with video for $349. At that same price, you could purchase an iPod Hi-Fi. Consumers with only $349 to spend naturally went with the iPod, as the speaker system was useless without the latter. Even if you could afford both, most people listened to their iPods on the go. The iPod Hi-Fi had handles, but it wasn’t exactly convenient to carry around. While the iPod Hi-Fi was well-received tech-wise, the average consumer wasn’t gonna spend so much on a device that’s really only good for parties. Thus, it lasted just over a year and a half before being discontinued.

#15: AirPower Axed
Some Apple products crash and burn. AirPower burned before it even had a chance to crash. The elevator pitch was enticing. Need to charge your iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods at the same time? No need to find multiple power outlets. With AirPower, you could charge all three at once. As convenient as this sounded, consumers knew something was off when AirPower missed its scheduled 2018 release. By March 2019, Apple pulled the plug on the product. Apple claimed that AirPower couldn’t meet their “high standards.” More specifically, experts believe that AirPower was canceled due to compatibility issues and the charging coils leading to overheating. Third parties nonetheless tried to replicate what AirPower promised. Apple also had more luck with the MagSafe charger in 2020.

#14: Apple Teams with U2
On more than one occasion, Apple has banked on their consumer base being U2 fans. Corresponding with the band’s 2004 album, “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,” Apple released the iPod U2 Special Edition. The product came complete with the band’s signatures and a red click wheel (for some reason). We guess that’s cool if you’re a U2 diehard, but for everyone else, it was hardly worth paying an extra $50. Ten years later, 500 million iTunes users found that Apple dropped U2’s “Songs of Innocence” album into their libraries for free. Again, a nice gift if you love U2, but many were just annoyed, feeling that the band was forcing their music on them. Bono even apologized, saying the “self-promotion” was “a little noisy.”

#13: Copland Cancelled
No, we didn’t say “Copland” like the 1997 crime drama starring Sylvester Stallone. Pronounced “KOHP-lənd,” this operating system got its name from composer Aaron Copland. Conceived as a follow-up to System 7 and a competitor for Windows 95, Copland (or System 8) was to be Apple’s most ambitious OS yet. So ambitious that it was delayed multiple times and amassed a budget of $250 million per year. Between the money being spent, inpatient executives, and conflicting visions, Copland was canceled after two years in development. This led to Apple acquiring NeXT and bringing back Steve Jobs, turning a massive failure into an eventual success with Mac OS 8.

#12: Power Mac G4 Cube
Although Jobs got Apple back on track, he didn’t always have the best instincts. Nowhere was this more apparent than with the Power Mac G4 Cube, which Jobs championed. For whatever reason, tech giants had an obsession with cubes in the early 2000s. A year before Nintendo released the GameCube, Apple introduced this cubed computer. While the design was generally praised, it was the only redeeming factor. Once again, the price was too extravagant at $1,799. The tech didn’t vindicate the cost with its limited power. Selling a disappointing 150,000 units, Jobs threw in the towel and the G4 Cube disappeared after barely a year. Still, the design was sleek enough for the computer to be displayed at the Museum of Modern Art.

#11: Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh
To commemorate Apple’s 20th anniversary, the company produced a limited edition computer for early 1997. The product went by a few different names, including Spartacus, Smoke & Mirrors, and Pomona. It was generally known as TAM, an abbreviation for Twentieth Anniversary Mac. And being an Apple product, it was reasonably priced… for the 1%. The other 99% had trouble coming up with the $7,499 retail price, which is more than $14,000 today. Instead of thanking Apple users for two decades of loyal patronage, they teased them with a computer they’d never be able to afford. Steve Jobs wasn’t a fan of TAM either. When the time came for the newly reinstated Jobs to clean house, TAM was among the first things to go.

#10: The iPhone 7's Missing Headphone Jack
Changes come at a hefty price. In the build-up for the release of the iPhone 7, rumors were circulating that Apple planned to ditch the analog headphone jack. Obviously, customers were not happy – but Apple wasn’t swayed by the petitions or criticism. The company dumped the jack in favor of the Lightning port, meaning customers could not listen to music through Apple's EarPods and charge the phone at the same time. While Apple's marketing chief – Phil Schiller – called the move courageous, the decision was largely motivated by a want to free up space for extra tech.

#9: The Launch of Final Cut Pro X
A brand's name can make or break a product. Apple's Final Cut Pro is an important video editing program that has been employed by many Hollywood films. In 2011, Apple released Final Cut Pro X, a program that was a complete departure from the previously released Final Cut Pro 7. Besides being conceptually different, the "X" could not import work from its predecessor and lacked some of its features. While Final Cut Pro X is a great program on its own terms, Apple could have better prepared existing Final Cut users for what proved to be an incredibly abrupt change.

#8: Apple USB Mouse [aka the Hockey Puck]
The late '90s were a turbulent time for Apple. While they showed a willingness to innovate, quite a few of their products failed to hit the mark. At one point, the company managed to even get the mouse wrong. Apple's so-called Hockey Puck looks really cool, but the compliments pretty much end there. The USB mouse's perfectly circular shape made it hard to control, as there was no intuitive way to know whether the user was holding the mouse straight. The Puck's lifespan was ultimately short-lived, as Apple went back to the drawing board and introduced the Apple Pro Mouse.

#7: The iPhone 4’s Reception Issues
Just three days after launch, the iPhone 4 sold over 1.7 million units. Unfortunately, not everyone was happy with their purchase. Many users complained about the iPhone's weak reception signal, a problem caused by gripping the phone's lower left edge. Apple's initial response left a lot to be desired, as they merely suggested that consumers should not touch the affected area while in a call or to buy a thirty dollar “bumper” case. After a handful of frustrated customers took Apple to court over the issue, the company finally decided to take some sort of action, and opted to supply cases free of charge.

#6: The Apple Lisa
Technological advancements are great, but they also need to be affordable. In the early '80s, Apple announced the Lisa, an innovative computer that was home to the first ever Graphical User Interface and featured an operating system with protected memory. While these were important advancements for the industry, Lisa's processor struggled with the workload and, in comparison with its contemporaries, felt slow. Worse still, it was priced at nearly $10,000 – around $25,000 in today's money. All of this amounted to pathetic sales figures, and the Lisa being discontinued less than four years after its launch.

#5: The Newton
As always, Apple was looking to push the envelope with the announcement of their personal digital assistant. To that end, the company not only gave us the term “PDA,” but also brought handwriting recognition to the format... kind of. In theory, the device would allow users to take notes, manage their schedule, and organize contacts, but most importantly, translate handwriting to text. Except, at launch, this ambitious feature barely worked, a reality that practically killed the Newton before it really had a chance.

#4: The Early Days Of Apple Maps
Unwilling to allow Google Maps to own the market, Apple released their own version in 2012. While things eventually improved, Apple Maps got off to such a rocky start that it required the company's CEO to publicly apologize. The application's biggest issues included misspelled place names, an inability to differentiate from cities that shared names, out of date information about stores and places of interest and completely wrong locations – all of which was a pretty damning problem for a product marketed on its accuracy. Apple would eventually fix over 2 million errors in the app.

#3: The Apple Pippin
When you think of classic '90s gaming, Apple doesn't exactly spring to mind. The Pippin technology platform was licensed to Bandai Company Ltd, which advertised its Bandai Pippin model as a gaming console. However, they sold less than 50,000 units… so it isn't that surprising. Depending on your point of view, the system was either an overpriced console or a cheap computer. Stateside, the system offered just 18 titles, but it did offer players the opportunity to connect to the internet, or as it was known at the time, “the 'net”. Unfortunately, very few people had an internet connection up to the demands of online gaming, making the Pippin a pretty useless purchase and underwhelming experience.

#2: The Apple III
Complete failures are quite rare, but Apple found a way to do the improbable. Replacing the Apple II, the Apple III was meant to push the company into the business sector; instead, this faulty device led to near financial ruin. Partially due to Steve Jobs' inflexible demands and instructions to not include a cooling fan, the device suffered from overheating and would break down after a couple hours of use. This was particularly problematic since it was targeted towards businesses rather than hobbyists and enthusiasts. Software for the Apple III was also scarce, and the computer got dismissal reviews right out of the gate.

#1: The Backfiring Clone Licensing
With Microsoft dominating the PC market by licensing out their Operating System, Apple tried to close the gap by doing the same thing with their Macintosh. The idea was to provide a cheaper means for consumers to get used to Apple's system, but the clones were often more advanced than the Macintosh computers. Unlike Microsoft - who were mainly into software - Apple's decision just resulted in an over-saturated market that threatened to leave them in the dust. With Motorola preparing to launch their Mac-based G3 powered StarMax 6000, Apple opted to stop the licensing program to save themselves.

What are your thoughts on these bad apples? Let us know in the comments.