Not all Apple products have been a raging success. This infographic illustrates Apple’s biggest flops of all time. I suspect some of their failures you’ve never heard of, which date back to 1983 through 2006. However, there has been a recent flop called Ping, which was social networking service targeted at music lovers, which didn’t make it into the illustration.
Here’s the full list again in text format:
Apple Lisa
What: Computer
Launched: 1983
Cost: $9,995
Why it flopped: The first computer with a mouse and graphical user interface, Lisa delivered the goods. But its price was simply too much for consumers. In today’s dollars, Lisa computers would cost $21,000 each. It’s believed that Apple buried tons of unsold Lisa computers at a Utah landfill as a tax write-off.
Macintosh Portable
What: Computer
Launched: 1989
Cost: $6,500
Why it flopped: Though technically portable, the 16-pound device was the size of a briefcase. It was replaced a couple of years later by the PowerBook.
Macintosh TV
What: Integrated computer-television device
Launched: 1993
Cost: $2,097
Why it flopped: A weird combination that wasn’t a good TV or a good computer, its five months on the market generated only 10,000 units.
QuickTake
What: Digital camera
Launched: 1994
Cost: $749
Why it flopped: With hilariously terrible pictures and resolution roughly equivalent to that of postage stamps, consumers predictably balked at the price tag. The camera was one of the first to go when Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997, though it stayed on the shelves for three terrible years.
Pippin
What: Video game console
Launched: 1996
Cost: $599
Why it flopped: Fewer than 20 games were available for the console on release. A crawling processor loaded games at a snail’s pace, and users had much better options in the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64.
Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (TAM)
What: Computer
Launched: 1997
Cost: $7,499
Why it flopped: Its initial sky-high price tag dropped rapidly as sales never took off, with the cost falling from $7,499 to $1,995 after Steve Jobs returned to the company. Other computers with similar price tags were simply better, and the TAM wasn’t worth the cost.
Price history
$7,499
$3,500
$1,995
Puck mouse
What: Computer mouse
Launched: 1998
Cost: Included with original iMac
Why it flopped: It came with the computer that helped launch Apple back into profitability. And while Apple excitedly proclaimed it as the best mouse ever made, it was in reality ergonomically incorrect and difficult to use (which way is up?).
iPod Hi-Fi
What: Stereo speaker system
Launched: 2006
Cost: $349
Why it flopped: Little more than an expensive shelf, this sound system soon got lost among scores of good products.
