Today, Apple’s financial and commercial position is the envy of all other computer companies, yet that was not always so. Throughout its history, the company has suffered some severe incidents when it tried to bite off a lot more than it could chew. In buy to prepare for what will likely be a busy news week, let’s take a deep breath and look back at 8 of Apple’s strangest products in its history.
1. Apple III – The Apple II successor that never made it
Image Credit: image credit: university of Maryland, computer science Department
Way before Apple took the market by storm with the Macintosh, its products were much a lot more like everyone else’s, with a plain old text-based user interface, which was present in the Apple II. The Apple III was essentially a beefed-up Apple II, with support for a lot more memory (a whopping 512 KB of RAM) and a new operating system known as SOS (which ironically stood for “Sophisticated operating System”), yet neither the system nor the hardware ever became successful, in part due to its large price identify of $7,800. and you thought Macs today were expensive?
The Apple III was discontinued in April 1984, having lived for just under 4 years. Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, later recalled this product on his memoir, iWoz, as a computer created by Apple’s marketing team, not by engineers.
2. Apple IIGS – An Apple II with a graphical interface
Image Credit: Vectronic’s Apple World
After the failure of the Apple III, Apple continued working on its proven Apple II line. one of the products the company introduced in 1986 was the Apple IIGS, the first ever Apple II with a fully graphical user interface, similar to the one found on the Macintosh which had been released 2 years before.
Despite its significant popularity in the education market, the IIGS was overshadowed by the Macintosh which was considered a fair a lot more modern platform at the time. The $999-computer was finally discontinued in 1992. Yet, this product was exceptional given the fact that it was the first and only Apple II to ever include a graphical user interface.
3. Apple Interactive television Box
Image Credit: Wikipedia
In the mid-1990s, Apple was struggling to reinvent itself, a lot more often than not without much success, but some of the products introduced around that time were actually pretty innovative ideas. The “Apple Interactive television Box”, which never left prototype stage, can be considered the world’s first set-top-box, which would work with, get ready: a subscription data service!
It wasn’t all roses, however. The product looked fairly clunky and included an unmodified stock version of Mac OS 7, which was already considered outdated a the time. The product was finally abandoned in 1995 before it even reached mass production, yet Apple introduced a very similar product 11 years later: the Apple TV, which happens to run a modified version of iOS.
Does the Apple TV have a secret uncle from the 1990s?
4. The Macintosh TV
Image Credit: Wired
Rumors have been swirling for the last few months that Apple might be working on a full-fledged television. In fact, Apple used to sell a TV, also in the mid-90s. The only problem was that said “TV” was actually just a modified Mac that could be converted into a cable-ready television. The product’s demise was ultimately caused by its sub-optimal hardware.
The Macintosh TV was finally shelved in 1994, less than one year after it was first introduced.
5. Apple QuickTake
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As Apple continued to struggle throughout the 90’s, its product line had been diversified so much that it included a full-fledged digital cam to its arsenal. The QuickTake, which was manufactured by Kodak or Fujifilm (depending on the model), could store up to 8 pictures on in its built-in memory which could then be transferred to a Mac using an Apple serial cable. later models also included Windows support and the ability to store pictures on memory cards.
The QuickTake was first introduced in 1992 and discontinued in 1997 when Steve jobs drastically revamped Apple’s product line. Now, several of Apple’s products, such as the iPhone, have a built-in camera, yet no standalone cam product has been introduced since.
6. Apple PowerCD
Image Credit: another computer Museum
The Apple PowerCD, as the name implies, was an Apple-branded CD player introduced in 1993, back when human beings actually gotten CD’s. This product was rather industry-standard, with a remote. as with any struggling service desperate to make a profit, speakers were sold separately.
The $499-product was removed from Apple’s product line altogether a few years later. Today, Apple maintains a strong music presence with the iTunes Store, which makes it easy to get music content digitally. Indeed, quite the opposite of the CD player!
7. Apple Bandai Pippin: A game console!
Image Credit: TUAW
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