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Apple has reached the top of the line in the world of technology as the company founded by Steve Jobs has dramatically expanded since its initial days.
Today, it's known for having a wide array of quality products with different utilities for everyone. While the products may vary across their nature, they're unified by the promise of quality and technological innovation.
However, Apple has also had its fair share of misfortunes regarding product development, and there are some products the company wouldn't want to remember anytime soon.
The next five names have gone down in history as failed products, although the reasons for their failures differ. Nevertheless, these are some of the lesser-heard products that were quickly binned to protect the tech giant's face and interests.
Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's views.
5 products from Apple that many have already forgotten
1) HomePod
Who hasn't heard about Alexa in today's world? The smart speaker is considered quite revolutionary today, and Amazon regularly improves it even further. The HomePod might not have been as capable as the Echo devices from Amazon, but it had a lot of potential. What could have become an able competitor to Google and Amazon has been lost in the wild.
One major problem was the limited nature of Siri in comparison to assistants like Alexa. The more significant issue was the price, as $349 was way more than what users were ready to pay.
To make matters worse, the competitors' products were available at a much cheaper price point. Apple made the mistake of launching them at a poor time as well. This resulted in the product failing to deliver on its hype, which subsequently led to it getting binned.
2) Performa x200
It's hard to believe that Apple once invested in cost-cutting measures; as unreal as it sounds, there's truth in it. In 1995, the company decided to release a series of PCs which could be priced quite competitively. This required them to make them in such a way that it would save production costs. What ultimately happened was a mix-and-match of parts that should have never happened.
While the price of Performa x200 wasn't obscene, they had an abysmal performance. They were outdone by Windows-run PCs back then and barely found any space in the market. The Performa x200 series is perhaps one of the reasons why the company believes in quality over anything else today.
3) Newton
Today's younger generation won't understand the importance of a PDA or Personal Digital Assistant. Back when smartphones were a science fiction concept, Apple ventured into the PDA market with a uniquely named product - Newton. The product was released in 1993, but the company again got the pricing wrong.
A staggering $699 is what someone had to shell out for the device. The device's attempt to identify handwriting became an embarrassing point for Apple. Despite a $100 million investment and several editions, Newton couldn't replicate the success of the scientist it was named upon.
4) Powerbook 5300
The MacBook has been one of the most successful lines of products produced by Apple over the last two decades. Before it came the Powerbook line, and while some were successful, The 5300 series was the opposite. Released in 1995, the 5300 series was supposed to help the company capture the lucrative emerging laptop market.
The Powerbook 5300 had certain features that helped it stand out. Its compactness and PowerPC processors were its strengths, but the fundamental build didn't help. The cheap plastic casing would come off very quickly, and all it would do was display the devices' wires and other internal materials. It barely sold itself, and production was halted within a year after the major debacle.
5) Pippin
It's widely considered that Apple's usual tendencies towards gaming are somewhat limited despite fabulous additions like its Arcade system on mobile devices. The company once thought that their hardware could help them build their own consoles.
They partnered with Bandai Namco to produce the Pippin, which started selling in Japan from 1996 onwards. The idea was to rival Sony and its emerging PlayStation console, but that wasn't meant to be the case.
While the hardware used in the system was reliable, it fell well short of what the competitors had to offer. The $599 pricepoint wasn't exactly cheap either, which made things worse for Pippin.
Sales were disappointing at a time when the PlayStation pushed Sony to the top. The console was discontinued a year later and will remain a major debacle in the company's history.
