It’s been 45 years since Apple turned an organization, and it has launched lots of groundbreaking products over that time. But it hasn’t all been iPhones and iPads—Apple has additionally made greater than its fair proportion of failed, clunky, and simply plain horrible products. Narrowing down our checklist was surprisingly powerful, so we centered on products that had a mix of dangerous and impactful—no one cares that the Pippin was horrible. With that in thoughts, listed here are our picks for the 10 worst Apple products of all time (in no explicit order), and make sure to check out the best Apple products over at Macworld UK.
Apple USB Mouse (Hockey puck mouse)
Apple
Officially referred to as the Apple USB Mouse, this was the primary Apple mouse to drop Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) in favor of USB. That’s about all it had going for it. Apple’s first USB mouse shipped with the unique Bondi Blue iMac G3 and was simply the worst half of that pc. The round form was such a catastrophic catastrophe of design that it now sits proudly close to the highest of any checklist of Apple failures you’ll ever come throughout. It was uncomfortable to carry, rotated as you used it, and tipped once you clicked the button too exhausting. Oh, and the twine was approach too quick. It’s not a very good signal when the factor you are supposed to use as the first means of controlling a product is basically unusable (see: Siri Remote beneath).
—Jason Cross
Siri Remote
Apple
Apple is usually accused of pursuing type over perform, and when it makes gadgets just like the Siri Remote you possibly can see why. The common TV distant is massive and dumb and ugly, nevertheless it does its job effectively: it feels snug within the hand and helps you discover buttons with out wanting. Apple created a distant that was slim and minimalist, with the outcome that you simply don’t even know when you’re holding it the best approach up. The trackpad is cooler than the outdated path wheel however much less user-friendly. And the distant will get misplaced all the time, simply so as to add insult to damage. We’ll be blissful to see it go (hopefully) with the next Apple TV update.
—David Price
eWorld/.Mac/MobileMe
IDG
Before there was the web, there have been dial-up on-line communities, with America Online being the most well-liked. In 1994, Apple tried to get in on the motion with eWorld, which additionally changed the outdated AppleHyperlink on-line help service. But not solely did it must battle AOL, it was obtainable solely to Mac and Newton customers, and it didn’t provide something of worth that wasn’t on AOL. Combine that with Apple hardly placing any effort into eWorld at all, and it was a simple venture to placed on the corporate’s chopping block throughout its large restructuring in 1996.
—Roman Loyola
Apple’s on-line providers choices have had a bit of a rocky historical past and people with a coveted @mac.com electronic mail tackle most likely don’t have the happiest recollections. That electronic mail tackle initially got here with iTools, however was later half of the subscription-based .Mac providing that included internet hosting, on-line storage, and backup talents. In June 2008, Apple gave subscribers to .Mac precisely one month’s discover that they’d be closing .Mac and changing it with MobileMe. The transition was something however easy with points delaying the beginning of MobileMe, however worst of all, many of the .Mac options weren’t transitioned (I’ve by no means actually forgiven Apple for the misplaced libraries of pictures I had saved on the service). Thankfully Apple allow us to preserve the @mac.com tackle as a result of that’s the one good factor to come back out of it.
—Karen Haslam
The remaining rebranding of Apple’s pre-iCloud on-line service (after iTools and .Mac), MobileMe at the least had the best thought. For $99 per yr, Apple would sync all kinds of stuff throughout your devices: pictures, contacts, e-mail, bookmarks, and so forth. It was pitched as “Exchange for the rest of us.” If solely it really labored! The service was plagued with issues from the very starting, together with launch delays, sign-up failures, and a number of severe outages. Things had been so dangerous that Apple gave out two free extensions. Steve Jobs even wrote a company-wide electronic mail wherein he stated, “The launch of MobileMe was not our finest hour.” Ouch.
—Jason Cross
iPod Hi-Fi
Roman Loyola/IDG
Apple marketed the iPod Hi-Fi bookshelf speaker as a revolution in house audio for fanatics, however the message fell on deaf ears. It didn’t assist that the iPod Hi-Fi didn’t produce the sound quality that nit-picky audiophiles demanded and its design really hampered stereo imaging. It was constructed to be moveable nevertheless it was fairly heavy at 17 kilos and it completely wasn’t constructed to take the abuse that comes with being carried round. While we’ll admit it had a stable design, the iPod Hi-Fi simply couldn’t compete with its extra sensible and better-sounding challengers and was discontinued only a yr after its launch.
—Roman Loyola
Butterfly keyboard
IDG
In 2015, Apple made the most effective laptop computer keyboard on the planet. After the MacGuide landed in March, it additionally made the worst. The MacGuide’s butterfly keyboard was alleged to be a revolution in thinness that delivered “a crisp and responsive feel when typing.” Instead, it was loud, sticky, and susceptible to so many points that Apple launched a service program that covers each butterfly keyboard mannequin ever launched. Thankfully Apple has since returned to pleasant scissor-switch keys, however we’ll always remember the 5 lengthy years we suffered with the butterfly keyboard.
—Michael Simon
Apple Maps launch
IDG
Almost a decade in the past, Apple sought to finish its reliance on Google Maps with its personal mapping service and app. First shipped in iOS 6, Apple Maps was a cobbled-together mashup of numerous knowledge sources that had been all out of the corporate’s direct management. The outcomes had been typically fairly, but that’s about all. It was fraught with knowledge errors resembling warping landscapes, inaccurate labels, and instructions that had been so dangerous they turned the topic of web memes. It took a number of years for Apple to scrub up the mess, all whereas Google stored including options to its personal mapping service. Two years in the past Apple began rolling out all-new map data—gathered and managed by Apple—and Apple Maps is lastly beginning to get legitimately good. But these first few years had been horrible and unforgettable.
—Jason Cross
AirPods Max Smart Case
Apple
You can argue about the merits of the AirPods Max themselves, which have proved divisive (I like them). But just about everybody agrees that their case—hilariously branded because the Smart Case—is a stellar instance of Apple’s dangerous design. It seems like nothing you’ve seen in your life: a bizarre hybrid mix of purse and failed artwork venture. Quality management is missing, with cutouts in barely the improper place and magnets weaker than they need to be. And most significantly it gives no safety by any means to essentially the most weak half of the AirPods Max, their headband. Smart Case? More like Dumb Case.
—David Price
Mac Pro (2013)
IDG
Apple’s glossy, trendy, and compact designs are half of its company id, however the 2013 Mac Pro is an instance of the corporate attempting approach too exhausting. When Apple changed the towering Power Mac/Mac Pro behemoth with a cylinder a fraction of the dimensions, it was a first-rate instance of an organization pondering it could get away with telling its clients what they want as an alternative of listening to these clients. The 2013 Mac Pro was an engineering feat, however Apple ultimately acknowledged that it did its clients improper and went again to a tower design for the Mac Pro in 2019.
—Roman Loyola
iPod Socks
IDG
It was exhausting to know whether or not Apple was completely severe when it began promoting iPod Socks in December 2004. The iPod Socks match any iPod or machine of that specific dimension and form, price $29, and had been bought in packs of six in a range of daring colours. Apple was little question hoping to get them into Santa’s sack, however the iPod Socks were tacky— the polar reverse of what we anticipate from Apple. Beyond shielding iPods from scratches and dirt, there was little profit to the iPod Socks. They would definitely provide no safety when you dropped your iPod. And but, as implausible as it might appear, the iPod Socks continued to be bought by Apple till 2012 once they had been lastly faraway from cabinets.
—Karen Haslam
iPod shuffle (third gen)
Apple
The unique iPod Shuffle mainly received every part proper. The third-gen model did not. It was cheaper at simply $59 and got here in a range of colours, however the great things ended there. Apple took the “shuffle” half to coronary heart and eliminated all buttons from the face of the machine. It moved all of the controls to the headphone twine, which meant you had to make use of Apple’s earbuds or purchase a third-party pair with an Apple-approved headphone adapter when you wished buttons, or else depend on voice management, neither of which had been ideally suited options. Plus its extremely small dimension made it very straightforward to misplace regardless of its built-in clip. “Easy to lose and hard to use” isn’t almost as compelling as “1,000 songs in your pocket.”
—Michael Simon
