Contrary to popular belief, not everything Steve Jobs touched turned to gold. In its almost four-decade long existence, Apple has released many products which weren’t smash hits. In fact they weren’t even moderate successes and Apple had to stop production due to losses. Obviously, these products were never heard of again.There have also been products that Apple made for either charity or as a limited edition pieces. Unfortunately, they never made any waves either . So here’s a list of ten Apple products you probably didn’t know existed:
- iBook – the Briefcase Computer from Apple
There’s a story about how Steve Jobs once walked into a conference room with a briefcase in his hand. He walked to his chair, placed the briefcase on the table, opened it, and said, “I want a computer that can fit inside this. And I want a computer that can open like this. And I want the two to be the same computer. Now get to work.”
And thus was born the iBook. In itself the idea may not have taken off, but it wasn’t a total bust either. The iBook was the predecessor to the MacBook series, which we all know are a great hit.
- Silentype – the Printer from Apple:
Apple has always believed in building its own hardware, but this printer was released back in 1979. HP wasn’t as big as it is today and computer companies used to manufacture their own printers. Apple released another printer called LaserWriter, but that was the end to its printing ambitions. No more Apple printers were released after that.
- OneScanner – the Scanner from Apple:
It is not such a stretch of imagination to make a scanner if you’re already making a printer. OneScanner replaced the earlier scanner that was 300 dpi, A4 sized. But unfortunately, both were a flop and production had to be stopped.
- PowerCD – the Diskman from Apple:
We all know how the iPod killed the Sony Walkman, but the iPod was not the first product from Apple to try and upset the music player market. Apple launched PowerCD in 1993 to that effect. It could connect to both a Mac and a traditional speaker system.
However, the point of interest is that PowerCD was not actually manufactured by Apple. It was made by Philips; Apple just put their logo on it.
- QuickTake – the Camera from Apple:
Apple was once in the same business that it has completely destroyed today – point-and-shoot cameras. Can you think of anyone with an iPhone who felt the need to buy a camera.
But even Apple didn’t know what it going to achieve back then, so it launched the QuickTake 200. It had a mind-blowing resolution of 0.3 megapixels and a staggering storage of 1 MB. Imagine that – One whole MB!!! We wonder why this product wasn’t a raging success.
- Pippin – the Gaming Console from Apple!!
Yeah, so Apple manufactured a gaming console, but it was meant to be more than that. It doubled up as a multimedia platform when connected to a Mac since it was based on the same Macintosh OS.
For reasons unknown, though, it never caught the fancy of the general public. Maybe because the Sony PlayStation was already a household name. Whatever the case, Pippin sold merely 40,000 units before being taken off the shelves.
- Game Tape for Apple II:
Game tapes? Sounds like a joke! But, to be fair, this was from way back in 1978 – an era before floppy disks made an appearance! That’s when cassettes (the one you see below) ran computers. And don’t be fooled by the vintage look. Even back then, the developers at Apple were damn good. Even at making games like these!!
- Newton – the Organiser from Apple:
Released at a time when digital personal organisers were the craze, Newton was Apple’s way of staying ahead of the curve. It came pre-loaded with the Notes, Contacts and Calendar apps and also came equipped with a stylus. And you thought the new iPad was the first Apple product to have a stylus!. It was also one of the first hand-held devices to make use of a handwriting recognition software.
- A Wardrobe full of Apple:
In 1986, Apple launched its own fashion line-up. That’s right. Clothes! Apple clothes!!
The line-up consisted of everything from baggy sweatshirts, windbreakers, patterned shirts, and polos, to even a separate clothing line for kids. My God! Look at all that swag! Somewhere, right now, a hoard of hipsters must be going nuts!!
- Gold EarPods:
These special single edition EarPods were custom built by none other than Jony Ive himself for the (RED) Auction in 2013. They were built using 18k Rose Gold and came with a custom display case. The final auction value for these earphones was $461,000. That’s just a little under INR 3 Crores. No, we are not kidding. Google it.