Gallery: The Island of Lost Apple Products
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Even with the somewhat muted (by Apple standards) demand for the iPad mini, Apple still had a fantastic weekend of iPad sales. It seems that even the company’s non-hits are hits. That’s not the case. Apple’s breakthrough products are so massive that it seems everything the company does is destined to succeed. But it doesn’t take much digging to find a trail of failures and false starts. Even in recent years, there are examples of products that seemed great but never resonated with consumers, and some that seemed so destined for failure it’s hard to imagine why any company would have brought them to market. Here are some examples of Apple veering a bit off course. QuickTake Camera ---------------- Life Span: 1994 - 1997 Back in 1994, Apple was actually at the forefront of digital photography. The QuickTake Camera’s photos (640 x 480 at 0.3 megapixels) were borderline unusable for anything other than your Geocities homepage. But technology has to start somewhere. Still, Apple killed the line after just three years. And while the iPhone and other smartphones have replaced most people’s digital cameras, Apple could have reaped the benefits of the digital point-and-shoot salad years. Why It Failed: Steve Jobs [streamlined Apple’s product lines from 15 to four](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/08/dayintech_0806/) when he returned to the company. The QuickTake was a victim of that streamlining.
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Cards App --------- Life Span: 2011 - Present Apple introduced Cards at the iPhone 4S event. Owners of iOS devices could design and ship cards without having to brave the aisles of a stationery store or having to search through their junk drawers for a stamp. It’s quick and easy, and not very many people actually care. I know just one person who uses the service. By all accounts, the cards are high quality, and Apple just updated the app with more designs and options. And yet it sits there on your device while your mom checks her mailbox every day waiting to hear from you. Hayes Roth, Chief Marketing Officer of Landor Associates told Wired that great brands are engaged with the customer. Something personal. "Actually touching something that Apple made for you, there's an emotional attachment to that stuff that people are striving for," said Roth. You know what? I’m going to send my mom a card right now. Why It Failed: It hasn’t, exactly. It’s still around. But even as a touchy-feely value add it needs users to justify its existence. The holidays are coming; Cards could get an uptick in usage.
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FaceTime Open Standard ---------------------- Life Span: 2010 - Present FaceTime was announced at the 2010 WWDC keynote. During the demo, Steve Jobs stated that Apple was working toward making FaceTime an Open Standard. This was a huge announcement from a company not known for its willingness to play well with others. The Open Standard would give other companies access to FaceTime. And since FaceTime itself is based on open standards (h.264 video, AAC, SIP, SRTP), Steve Jobs announced that Apple would be going to the standards bodies the *next day* to make it an industry standard. It’s two years later and FaceTime is still an Apple-only experience. Why It Failed: Apple is mum on its plans (or lack thereof) to open source FaceTime. Open source evangelist Jonathan Schwartz, former CEO of Sun Microsystems and Current CEO of [Care Zone](https://carezone.com/), believes that Apple had hoped that FaceTime would be huge hit and that making it an open standard would undercut Skype and other video-calling technologies. Schwartz noted that companies “Drive an open standard when you want to disrupt from below.“ Alas, that didn’t happen for FaceTime.
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iPod Hi-FI ---------- Life Span: 2006 - 2007 Back in 2006, Apple introduced a really nice speaker. A really nice speaker that was simply [too expensive](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/testguide/fall2006/reviews/portableaudio/27.html) to be taken seriously. The Hi-Fi was Apple’s attempt to jump into the iPod speaker dock market. At $350, it didn’t fly off the shelf like the iPods that were supposed to sit in its dock. The big box of iPod boom was discontinued after just 18 months. Why It Failed: Too expensive and bulky. Basically an ice box with speakers.
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iPhone App *Texas Hold-Em* -------------------------- Life Span: 2006 - 2011 Apple made a pretty solid poker app for the iPhone. It was the only game app that Apple has ever released on its own. It was also the only poker app I played. And while I eventually lost all my money trying to bluff the computer, the game was solid and fun. It [debuted on the iPod in 2006](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/2006/09/ipod_gets_into_/) and was one of the first apps available when Apple launched the App Store in 2008. Then without warning, Apple pulled it from the app store in November 2011. Why It Failed: Apple stopped updating the app and it just disappeared one day. As with its plans to open source FaceTime, Apple is silent on what happened with *Texas Hold-Em*.
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iPod Socks ---------- Life Span: 2004 - 2012 The weirdest Apple products to take up space in the company’s retail stores were the iPod socks. The one-size-fits-all cozies were actually tiny iPod cases available in a rainbow of colors. And while the socks became a joke among even the most hard-core Apple users, the little protective pieces of cloth persevered. Released in November 2004, they stayed on shelves until September of 2012, which gave us eight years of wondering whether Apple was trolling us with footwear. Why They Failed: Hayes Roth, chief marketing officer of brand marketing agency Landor Associates, speculates that the little knitted tchotchkes were just an odd Apple attempt at branding. "A good company is always looking at where it can extend its brand,” Roth said. “Any company that does that is usually going to push the envelope a little bit.”
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Apple's Bluetooth Headset ------------------------- Life Span: 2007 - 2009 It didn’t have a clever name. Maybe that was why it lasted less than two years. Or it may have had something to do with the fact that Apple announced the headset at the original iPhone event. Does anyone remember anything about that event beyond the iPhone? The Apple Bluetooth Headset was a pocket-draining $130. Sure it had a sweet charging dock, but competing headsets on the market cost less with better features. Why It Failed: Too expensive. Lost in the iPhone media whirlwind. Ars Technica said it sounded “[like a bowl of Rice Krispies sprinkled with crystal meth for your ear, so bad is the snapping, crackling, and popping sounds accompanying its use.](http://arstechnica.com/apple/2008/08/review-apple-iphone-bluetooth-headset/) “
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Ping ---- Life Span: 2010 - 2012 Ping could have been amazing. It should have been amazing. Instead, the social network stands as one of Apple’s most baffling failures. At launch it worked only with songs purchased from iTunes. And “likes” posted only to Ping and Twitter, because Facebook and Apple were having a disagreement at the time. Plus, Instead of putting Ping on every browser out there, Apple walled it off inside iTunes. Even with artist pages from Lady Gaga and Death Cab for Cutie, Ping never really caught on. Its social features consisted of seeing what friends purchased or reviewed. That’s less social and more purchasing advice. Why It Failed: Steven Levy said that “[Ping came out half-baked](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/magazine/2010/12/pr_levy_ping/).” It’s tough to disagree with that.
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Motorola Rokr ------------- Life Span: 2005 - 2006 You can’t blame Apple for this one. Okay, maybe you can blame it a little. The company knew the mobile phone industry was a stagnant piece of candy-bar phone. Still, Apple chose to team up with Motorola for the first phone to support iTunes, the Rokr. It was a bad phone and an even worse media player. It had a sub-standard camera, lacked features found on other phones and suffered frustratingly slow music transfers. And it could hold only 100 songs. Plus, it didn’t really work when [Steve Jobs’ demoed it onstage](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wired/archive/gadgetlab/20050913.html). The Rokr E1 was released in September 7, 2005 and replaced by the Rokr E2 only a few months later in January 2006. The new Rokr featured Real Player instead of iTunes. A year later, Apple announced the iPhone, and everyone did their best to forget about the Rokr debacle. Why it Failed: Horrible phone. Even worse media player. Even Steve Jobs [knew the phone was a dud](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/16-02/ff_iphone?currentPage=all).
