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Six Disasters From The Book Of Apple

blogs.nzherald.co.nz — On the eve of what I thought would be another triumph for Apple - until I saw Vodafone NZ's iPhone 3G pricing plans and saw the huge reaction - here, for your edification, are some Apple disasters.

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domfosnz 95 days ago, made popular 95 days ago

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Omek, on 07/08/2008, -0/+20I think the main problem with some of those, "disasters," was their unbelievable price point. They offered some good, innovative ideas, but there was little to no market for them.

The cube created a whole mod industry for itself though. I remember someone making their cube look like a aluminum G5 and upgrading the processor, graphics card, and hard drive. Although, nowadays you might as well just go with a mini.
- wphj, on 07/09/2008, -0/+8The mini seems to be on life-support as well. Apple needs to either pay attention to it or pull the plug. I really don't understand why it's so neglected, it is the perfect switcher computer, besides maybe a MacBook.
  - WoollyMittens, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3I use a mac-mini as a "house server" for my media files. It's incredably useful as a third screen, email checker, torrent downloader, VirtualBox, test-browsers, address book, calendar, weather station, FTP server, TV dongle, xbox display, stereo reciever/mixer, streaming radio, rss reader, podcast viewer...
    
    It's just too bad Apple is starving the little thing of hardware updates. :(
    I don't know what I would replace it with, should it die. I really don't.
- Elranzer, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2The price point is still a disaster for Apple to this day. The artificially inflated prices seem to give the false impression that they're the Ferrari of computer products.
  
  That said, I love their products, but I wish they were more affordable. As a hardware guy I know that the sum of their components are worth a lot less than the retail price they're pushing.
michaels73, on 07/08/2008, -9/+8The iPod Touch still rocks
- domfosnz, on 07/08/2008, -0/+1I think i'm going to go for a touch and keep my nokia. And see how the pricing pans out.
- manfrin, on 07/09/2008, -5/+1Completely disagree there. Until they can get it to the storage capacity of the other iPods, it will remain a very fancy toy.
- fugazied, on 07/09/2008, -1/+4I have an ipod touch (32GB), its a very handy device. Better navigation, apps, GREAT battery life, wireless, gmail/email, contacts are all things I use daily. Even the timer is very handy, far superior to a standard ipod, I'd never go back. Its so easy to sync and create different playlists that the 32gb limit has never been reached...
wille1623, on 07/08/2008, -3/+2I dont know ANYONE with the cube. Reply if you have one.
- lordtyros, on 07/09/2008, -0/+8I have 10
  - HouseCentipede, on 07/09/2008, -1/+3I have 8. They're arranged in a cubical fashion.
- CRABpeople90, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4had one and loved it
- huckdunsany, on 07/09/2008, -1/+5I've got one I bought second-hand a few years ago. Upgraded the stock 450mHz G4 CPU with a dual-G4 card running at 1.3gHz, added a much more powerful Radeon 9700 graphics card, and had a lot of fun tinkering with it. Sure, it was overpriced and under-powered when it was new, but as a working system (post upgrades), it's both fast for everyday use and incredibly cool to look at. I highly recommend you guys to ask around if you haven't seen one in person - someone you know may have one, and it's worth a drive to see the design details that went into it. DISCLAIMER: I'm currently employed by Apple, so I'm biased, but the G4 Cube predates my work for Apple by a year or two.
- GiJoeBob, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2I've got several.
- Jerk, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4I have one that I got for free with 1.5GB of RAM. I upgraded the video card to a Radeon 7000 (keeping it fanless) and installed a dual 500MHz processor. It's running 10.4 Server on my home network...I love it.
  
  I also had (still have, actually) a Powerbook Duo 230 which was a great machine for its time. I knew several people that had them because they were easy to take to the coffee shop.
- gthyb, on 07/09/2008, -0/+0My grandma has one. Never used...
  
  It was the first time I saw Jonny Ives in their promo videos. He made me a believer.
willgonz, on 07/09/2008, -0/+5Good thing they took the RED pill.
tobsterius, on 07/09/2008, -0/+9People always seem to forget the Apple III -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_III#Commercial_ ...
cadmiumpaint, on 07/09/2008, -5/+10A bit unfair on some of those. Its not like apple wanted heavy portables..that was the limts of technology.

The cube was a bit ahead of its time. If it was priced better it would have survived to this day.

The newton was just years ahead of the need for such a device.
soopafly, on 07/09/2008, -7/+14WTF is this guy smoking? Half of the things listed were amazing, innovative products.
- clockdist, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1He didn't say they weren't innovative, they just didn't sell well.
  I still think the Newton was one of the best devices of its time. And the Cube was awsome.
ConanTL, on 07/09/2008, -0/+8No mention of the Pippin?
zakatov, on 07/09/2008, -1/+11The cubes were really cool. To open it, you push on the bottom, a handle pops up and you use it to pull out the "core", and get access to AGP slot, memory, HD, etc. Everything is upgradable, CPU, memory, vid. card, HD, optical, etc. Here: http://www.t2-project.org/hardware/workstation/App ... , how cool is that?
- thecatcantalk, on 07/09/2008, -14/+3"Upgradeable"? You mean, like the G4, which would overheat and crash constantly if you did actually upgrade anything inside the case?
  
  Yeah, next time I want to pay $6,500 for a $1,300 machine, I'll buy an Apple. Because I'm a gullible snob, who wants to impress college kids in coffeeshops with his wildly-overpriced Mac products. Like the new iSuck, the telephone made up of seamlessly integrated, obsolete hardware.
  
  And because I didn't notice that Windows XP made buying a Mac pointless.
  - fugazied, on 07/09/2008, -2/+3By your ignorance, I have no doubt you've never used a mac more than 10 minutes or not in the last 5 years.
mecharabbit, on 07/09/2008, -4/+1What's with the fonts on that page? Do they not display right on a Windows PC?
- zakatov, on 07/09/2008, -3/+1It's not Times New Roman or Arial, but everything looks fine in Safari. What's wrong with it on your browser?
- ThisCommentSux, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1It's a combination of Calibri & Arial, degrading to san-serif. It's in the CSS.
lead2thehead, on 07/09/2008, -6/+3Let's not forget the original iBook that looked like a neon colored toilet seat.
- Balanced, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1I think it sold pretty well, though, so it's not really a 'disaster' just a short-lived design.
ophello, on 07/09/2008, -4/+8The prices for these products was directly proportional to how far ahead of the competition they were. The first iPhone, case in point.

People use the word "overpriced" as if Apple could afford to sell these things for less. I don't agree. Apple doesn't overprice their products anymore than any other competitor. You get what you pay for: seamless hardware/software integration and timeless industrial design.
- thecatcantalk, on 07/09/2008, -8/+4Dude, Apple's competitors sell better hardware for half the price.
  
  And their products don't come pre-loaded with crippleware (e.g., iTunes) and worthless software that never runs properly (e.g., Mac Mail) or crashes constantly (e.g., Safari).
  - Kosher1947, on 07/09/2008, -2/+3yeah...I love having to wade through the deletion of legitimized trojans like AOL, Napster and all the other crap I find on every Windows system I buy.
    
    Safari crashes because people don't reset it every once and awhile and never check disk permissions. iTunes isn't crippleware, you are not required to buy anything from the iTunes music store and you can easily set it to convert your music to mp3 instead of mp4. And if you don't want to use an iPod...mod iTunes or install one of many OSS alternatives that run on OSX. I like my iPod, but didn't have trouble using a third party player like Creative.
    
    Mail? Dude, are you serious or are you just listing the Mac programs you remember? I am going to go with the latter on that one.
    
    So DUDE...if you can't run a Mac, than you suck at computing.
  - doctordbx, on 07/09/2008, -0/+0I wouldn't call it crippleware, but my latest iMac came loaded with more bloat than a Dell notebook. So much so the Dock was already overcrowded, and the first thing I had to do was remove applications I would never use.
    
    Apples are nice, but I find Safari to be a complete piece of *****. Just personal prefs though.
  - ophello, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1if itunes is crippleware, then windows is a virus.
    
    macs dont come with a bunch of trial software that all sucks. it comes with a minimum of programs that work very well. dont get mad at apple for simplifying their products and user experience. simplicity is not evil.
- tcasey22, on 07/09/2008, -5/+3Drinking Jobs' Kool-aid again I see...
- ThaDRD, on 07/09/2008, -3/+2They are overpriced. How do you think they can just give away iPods with the purchase of a $2000+ laptop?
  - kaaBOOM, on 07/09/2008, -2/+3They are NOT over priced. Students are paying about $1000 or less for a MacBook. You cannot buy an equivalent Windows laptop, in same size and specs and with the same features, for that price. No way, no how, not at that price.
    
    On top of that though Apple is throwing in the free $300 iPod, and a free $100 printer with it. Thats not over priced, thats called a bottom line price. If you think you can get a deal like that from any of Apple competitors. Keep dreaming, because they aren't going to touch it.
- bipolarruledout, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1Now you KNOW thats just not true. Apple has always charged more for the (more or less) same hardware. It's just in recent years that this has changed... the gradual move to comodity x86 (now 100%) has really helped prices.
  
  Apple bills themselfs as a premium brand and they don't have to apologize for their prices. You got to pay to play. If you want Apple then you pay apple prices. They certainly didn't invent the premium market but they know how to play it.
  
  Their hardware is a cut above the rest but I wouldn't call it the BEST by any means... but it sure is pretty. I would put nearly any thinkpad up against a mac laptop in terms of build quality & usability. The only "issue" people have with them are that they are boring and you can have any color you want as long as it's black.... and they look "dated", but some prefer the term "classic". But if you want to get work done they have THE most awesome keyboard you can find in a laptop.
- slinky317, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2You can get better hardware in laptops from different manufacturers for significantly less than what you could with Apple. The only difference is you're NOT getting the Apple name. They mark-up their products because, unlike Windows, you have to get OSX through them so they know that people will buy it.
- griffinjam, on 07/09/2008, -1/+1fanboi much?
  
  You do know that now that Apple uses Intel chips their hardware is virtually identical to that used in Windows PCs, in fact, Windows XP can run on default Mac hardware, and Mac OS can run on Windows PC hardware, that being said, there is a fairly large price difference between the two, the Apple hardware being more expensive.
  
  Apple *can* sell their products for less (remember the drop in the iPhone price last year? do you think they just found a way to make it way cheaper or something?) they don't because they are a company concerned with making a profit and know that people like you (people that don't buy a computer based on its capabilities or price but based on the little logo on it) are willing to pay more for a computer to get one with their logo on it.
  - ophello, on 07/09/2008, -1/+1the apple logo is not a reason i buy apple. their products are designed well and the user experience is great. that doesnt make me a fanboy. it makes me an intelligent consumer. go home and play with your dell.
chandrab, on 07/09/2008, -0/+6I have an Apple Lisa-1 and it's awesome...it was expensive because it was ahead of it's time....it had a bitmapped GUI, multitasking OS, virtual memory, 1MB of memory (in 1982!), mouse, networking, LisaOffice and even a screen saver and a control panel for the OS....everything we have today. Try that PC-DOS 2.1!
Lisa's QuickDraw was also used in the Mac...which is basically a cost reduced Lisa.

Incidently the guys who built Lisa also built the Xerox Alto.
- bipolarruledout, on 07/09/2008, -1/+2When Microsoft does it it's bloated.
  When Apple does it it's ahead of it's time.
  
  The Lisa has some major "cool" factor but at the time be it was felt laughable to use SO MUCH (like over half) the hardware resources to drive a GUI.
- clockdist, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1You're rich
whatignorance, on 07/09/2008, -2/+1What is the good of being innovative if nobody buys your product. There is no point developing a product that doesn't meet consumer demands.
- P373Y, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2but by pushing the envelope, they got more things done in the future. if it wasnt for gaming, and apple, we would all have crappy dells, and be happy for it.
DigginDave, on 07/09/2008, -1/+10Didn't apple also sell a digital camera that didn't do so hot?
- javaroast, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Yep the QuickTake. A place I worked at had a QuickTake 100. Fun toy with horrible color quality. But for 1994 it was pretty cool. Got overtaken in the market very quickly and it was axed.
- Jerk, on 07/09/2008, -1/+4Digital cameras in general didn't do so hot back then. They were expensive, offered low quality images (compared to film), and didn't hold many photos. Most cameras of that era also didn't offer any memory expandability.
pentiumii, on 07/09/2008, -2/+2although i dont much like apple mainly because it tends to overstate it price for what u get

most the thing on this listed weren't failure with the exception of the newton and the lisa they were just over priced even for it time

the newton he gave to much credit to it that thing sucked bad i had a one and a palm

and to guy saying it to far a head it time

yeah that's y the palm that out sold it had every thing it did
- Niightwitch, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4The period is your friend....use it.
- Balanced, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1The big advantages (circa 1997 or so) of the Palm devices were size (you could fit a palm in a pocket) and data entry (using Palm's special Grafitti alphabet).
  
  Newton had some great usability ideas. I actually found it semi-usable for note-taking, which is miles ahead of the Palm.
  
  I still find I'm best off using a regualr paper notebook for note-taking then put important bits in a smartphone, pda or iPod to keep them handy.
rwallen, on 07/09/2008, -6/+2Why is this article on the front page every other week?
wetard57, on 07/09/2008, -1/+1dang i just found an eMate 300 in this house i was just cleaning i was wonder how much i could sell it for, someone send me an email if they want to buy it
- Jerk, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2They're not worth much, check eBay. There are several Buy-it-Nows for $25.
- gthyb, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Yeah be careful with the $25 eMates. I got burned. They're mostly from school districts...and broken. Cool device though, with a formfacter that's coming back thanks to OLPC/EEPC/ETCPC
GiJoeBob, on 07/09/2008, -1/+1We called the Mac Portable the Mac "Luggable".
GiJoeBob, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3

And Apple screwed me over with the eMates. I sold about 300 to a school district and then two weeks after they took delivery Apple announces that they are doing away with the program. Man, were they pissed. We never sold a thing to that district again.
- HouseCentipede, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1I wasn't around when they were in use, but our district just recycled about a dozen of them. They looked fairly durable, but I don't know if they had enough horsepower to be useful. Too bad the lack of standard I/O jacks on them made them difficult to hack into anything fun.
cambrown99, on 07/09/2008, -1/+4The "what should Apple have learnt" lines at the end of each article are annoyingly retarded, mostly because Apple DID learn to do all those things.
- bipolarruledout, on 07/09/2008, -1/+2Apple HAS and may continue to make the same mistakes twice. Mostly this is out of "style" or "vision" and ignoring the market. It's both Steve's biggest strength and weekness.
bipolarruledout, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1At times it's amazing that steve didn't run that company into the ground... but hey they did term his ass once. Does apple DO market research? Microsoft spends a ton of money in this area and considering this it's also amazing that Apple has done as well as it has... but then you could say that they don't exactly rule the market, not even close.

I do wish they would have kept the newton around. Apple had a chance to own the PDA market but they are so stubborn with their "vision" that they would not have been able to get the size down for at least for a few years. It was still way ahead of it's time no question.
e68895f, on 07/09/2008, -1/+2Okay, how many else read this as "Sex Disasters From The Book of Apple" ?
macamatition, on 07/09/2008, -1/+1Lets not forget Apples digital camera the "QuickTake"
macmangb, on 07/09/2008, -5/+2buried for gross exaggeration. Most of these were failures because of M$ anti competitive practices, pricing Apple out from competing.
- slinky317, on 07/09/2008, -1/+2Yes, because Apple can have no failures, amirite?
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Six Disasters From The Book Of Apple

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