Apple Duds....
The Lisa
Named after Steve Jobs’ daughter, the Lisa computer was the company’s first product that combined a graphical user interface with a mouse. It was an innovative idea in 1983, but the $10,000 price tag and lumbering pace led to failure. Apple reportedly buried tons of unsold Lisa stock at a Utah landfill.
Macintosh Portable
Would you call a 15.5-pound computer portable? Most consumers didn't either. The $6,500 machine the company introduced in 1989 found few takers. But Apple rethought the computer’s design, and by 1991 it came up with the PowerBook, which remains the standard in laptop design.
The Ineffectual CEOs
Tapped by Jobs in 1983 for his marketing acumen at PepsiCo, John Sculley eventually displaced the Apple co-founder in 1986. For the next 11 years, Apple's fate--and market share--drifted as Sculley, then Apple insider Mike Spindler, then semiconductor veteran Gil Amelio all tried and failed to lift Apple to greatness. Jobs returned to his company as a "consultant" in 1997.
The Newton
From today's perspective, the Newton seems at once both a visionary device and a bulky, pricey PDA. But in 1993 it seemed like neither: Consumers didn’t know quite what to do with it. When the thinner, cheaper, easier-to-use Palm Pilot came out in 1996, the product category finally fell into place, and the Newton faded into obscurity.
The Rokr
The Motorola Rokr is not Apple’s attempt at an iPod phone, the company’s fans declare emphatically. But Apple chose to license its iTunes software for use on the phone and partnered with Motorola to market the converged device in September 2005. The final product, which limits the amount of songs the phone can play at an arbitrary 100, was a disappointment, and Apple spent much more time and energy marketing the iPod Nano.
Taligent
Apple rarely gets tagged as a purveyor of "vaporware"--products that get pre-release hype yet never find their way to market. But that's what Taligent was: Purportedly a superior, futuristic operating system for PCs, the project began in the late 1980s, but it died a lonely death in 1995 without ever appearing in public.
Apple Computer v. Microsoft
In 1988, Apple sued Microsoft, saying Gates and company had infringed on Apple’s copyrights for a desktop-based graphical user interface. After four years of court squabbles, Apple lost the case and an appeal. The decision shaped the history of computing, effectively allowing Windows to become the dominant operating system through licensing deals and causing Apple to turn from new design to new design in an effort to gain a few market-share points.
Named after Steve Jobs’ daughter, the Lisa computer was the company’s first product that combined a graphical user interface with a mouse. It was an innovative idea in 1983, but the $10,000 price tag and lumbering pace led to failure. Apple reportedly buried tons of unsold Lisa stock at a Utah landfill.
Macintosh Portable
Would you call a 15.5-pound computer portable? Most consumers didn't either. The $6,500 machine the company introduced in 1989 found few takers. But Apple rethought the computer’s design, and by 1991 it came up with the PowerBook, which remains the standard in laptop design.
The Ineffectual CEOs
Tapped by Jobs in 1983 for his marketing acumen at PepsiCo, John Sculley eventually displaced the Apple co-founder in 1986. For the next 11 years, Apple's fate--and market share--drifted as Sculley, then Apple insider Mike Spindler, then semiconductor veteran Gil Amelio all tried and failed to lift Apple to greatness. Jobs returned to his company as a "consultant" in 1997.
The Newton
From today's perspective, the Newton seems at once both a visionary device and a bulky, pricey PDA. But in 1993 it seemed like neither: Consumers didn’t know quite what to do with it. When the thinner, cheaper, easier-to-use Palm Pilot came out in 1996, the product category finally fell into place, and the Newton faded into obscurity.
The Rokr
The Motorola Rokr is not Apple’s attempt at an iPod phone, the company’s fans declare emphatically. But Apple chose to license its iTunes software for use on the phone and partnered with Motorola to market the converged device in September 2005. The final product, which limits the amount of songs the phone can play at an arbitrary 100, was a disappointment, and Apple spent much more time and energy marketing the iPod Nano.
Taligent
Apple rarely gets tagged as a purveyor of "vaporware"--products that get pre-release hype yet never find their way to market. But that's what Taligent was: Purportedly a superior, futuristic operating system for PCs, the project began in the late 1980s, but it died a lonely death in 1995 without ever appearing in public.
Apple Computer v. Microsoft
In 1988, Apple sued Microsoft, saying Gates and company had infringed on Apple’s copyrights for a desktop-based graphical user interface. After four years of court squabbles, Apple lost the case and an appeal. The decision shaped the history of computing, effectively allowing Windows to become the dominant operating system through licensing deals and causing Apple to turn from new design to new design in an effort to gain a few market-share points.
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