The very first failed project of Apple’s lifetime was the Apple III. After enjoying the great success of Apple II, Apple III was expected to join the business to take on another level. But making the company down, Apple III turns into the first biggest failure of Apple. This faulty product came with no added cooling fan that causes overheating and frequent breakdown of chips. To fix these problems, Apple recommended another ridiculous DIY fix for users to pick the chips 6 inches up and reseat them again, which eventually didn’t work. So, Apple recalled all the existing products on the market, a possible count of 14000 units.

Up next, in the list, we got Apple Lisa, a personal computer with a graphical interface. Having a personal computer with a graphical interface in the ’80s was insane. Even a big budget of $10000 that time couldn’t stop the buyer from having the first graphical interface personal computer, The Apple Lisa. This one single feature was able to justify the whole pricing of Lisa unless it disappointed the user with slow running speed and hard-to-use characters.

Did you ever think of having a 16 pounds bulky and four inches thick laptop that you can say portable? Never right? But the first attempt of Apple’s making portable computers resulted in a bulky piece of plastic that didn’t even turn on while plugged in. Such a disaster in the name of portable.

Yet being one of the most ambitious projects of Apple, Copland never makes its way out of the shelf. In the 1990s, the original Macintosh operating system started to show its age, while Apple thought of designing a new modern system, the Copland. The operating promised to run Windows apps, giving neck-to-neck competition to Microsoft Windows PCs. But after several years of hard work, Apple wasn’t able to show any fruitful results, hence the project got canceled.

Though the gaming console was licensed to Bandai Company Ltd., Apple Pippin was a cross between a gaming console and a networked computer. But while there were already players like- Sony, Nintendo and Sega, nobody intended to buy an overpriced set-top box that only had a 14.4 kb/s modem and no support from major game developers. With that, the terrible marketing and bad design of Apple Pippin also joined in pulling it out from the market.

Introducing the world with a new revolution of PDAs, Newton was thought to be one of the revolutionary products of Apple. But failing to adapt its key feature of translating handwriting into text, Newton remained an embarrassment for Apple. Even this funny feature of Newton was mocked in shows like- Doonesbury cartoon strip, on Saturday Night Live, and in an episode of The Simpsons too.

A pure example of an all-in-one computer, Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh was packed with everything you can ask from a 90s computer. It got an LCD display, FM radio, TV tuner, CD-ROM drive, Bose sound system, and leather palm rests. But great features also come with a bigger price tag, which was eventually the failure reason of the 20th anniversary Mac. A price tag of $7,500 at launch couldn’t make sales the first year, so Apple reduced the price by 75% a year later and cleared the stock at a price of $1995.

Another example of Apple’s beautiful design but couldn’t rank on the shelf for a long time. This piece of beauty was sold for $1799 while having no monitor with its package and also having visible cracks on its surface, especially on the corners and top of Cube’s case. So there was no point in having an overpriced computer while a regular Power Mac G4 was worth $200 less.

While the era of social media was spreading all over, Apple also tried to bring another way of socializing through Ping. It was social media network for iTunes users to explore and enjoy the music taste of friends and new tunes on this network. But using the network without connecting it to Facebook was a true burden, and nobody wanted to join another social media. So, ping shut down in 2012.

Another great yet failed project of Apple that couldn’t make its way to shelves. In 2017, Apple announced to bring the AirPower mat with a promise of charging the iPhones, Apple Watches and AirPods simultaneously. The company even said the mat would be able to communicate to ensure everything is charging efficiently. But the ambitious AirPower missed its release date in 2018, and Apple ended up canceling the project.