Apple Computer and Apple Inc have had an amazing decade, revolutionizing industries as diverse as music, movies, telecoms and software with its iPod/iTunes/iPhone products and ruling the OS Wars with its much-copied Mac OS X.
Not everything Steve Jobs does is insanely great
Apple CEO Steve Jobs won PC Advisor's Person Of The Decade. Fortune magazine named him CEO Of The Decade.
PC Advisor's Product Of The Decade: Apple iPod
PC Advisor's Company Of The Decade: Google
PC Advisor's Person Of The Decade: Steve Jobs
Could the man do no wrong?
Oh, yes he could do wrong. Very wrong.
Here's our list of ten products - in no particular order of badness - that Apple and Steve Jobs probably wish had never seen the light of day.
Power Mac G4 Cube - Too cool for tool
Following the success of its funny-looking bubble-shaped iMac what did Apple do next? Come out with something even wackier?
A completely spherical ComputerBall that you could roll between workgroups? Something that looked like a fish?
No, it waited till 2002's crazy anglepoise iMac for its next doolally design. Did it go mad on the colours and unveil something truly hideous? No, you're thinking of 2001's Flower Power iMac.
What Apple did was quite the opposite of the cute, friendly iMac. It designed the über-cool Power Mac G4 Cube, distilling all the power of the old tower-based Power Mac into a clear, eight-inch perspex cube.
Where the iMacs were fat, fun and colourful the G4 Cube was sleek and neutral - surely this was a real Steve Jobs product, whereas the iMac had been designed prior to his triumphant return to Apple.
It looked so good that it was immediately installed in New York's Museum Of Modern Art.
While undoubtedly a remarkable feat of engineering, the G4 Cube didn't last long - production was suspended less than a year after launch (August 2000). Instead of being embraced for saving desk space the Cube was avoided because it was so small and too cool for its own good. And bloody expensive.
Apple was criticised for leaving too much out - PCI expansion, internal audio input and output - but maybe it was just too radical for a beige-bound industry still reeling from the chubby iMac.
Nice try, but hardly a roaring success.
iPod v2 - Button it
The original 5GB iPod (October 2001) is a design classic, and most of its later versions - all the way to today's iPod classic - enhanced its minimalist beauty. But Apple had a very early blip with version 2 (released April 2003). Unlike with the G4 Cube, which had Steve Jobs' hands all over it, this product upgrade looked like it slipped right past his office while he was out for a veggie burger.
While thinner and lighter than the original iPod (with up to eight times the capacity) this new iPod ruined the classic minimalism by adding a row of four indented, backlit buttons above the scroll wheel.
It was ugly, and made us fear that the next iPod would have even more buttons and end up looking like every other MP3 player on the market. Worse, it might have morphed into something resembling a portable CD player.
A year later Apple ditched the stupid buttons for a solid-state click wheel, back to the look of the simple original.
NEXT: More Apple duds of the decade...
Comments
Garry said: Guys this article looks at 10 not-so-great Apple products from the past decade It doesnt say that these were the only things Apple produced in those 10 years If you disagree with any of the products mentioned then do so rationally not just attack the writer for daring to expose a few weak Apple products One of you says the nano was great The writer says the same but picks on just one version
MDC said: It seems that the Apple fans think that they have the right to censor anyone who even mildly criticises an Apple product The one time I used an Apple computer I thought that the one button mouse was so bizarely bad that I never tried again
Farnoud said: very biased article you perhaps are a Microsoft fanboy
Hadi said: I used some of these products and those are not bad apple tv spotlight ipod nano etc they are very successful infactstop writing dude its not your thing
Kippert said: Cant you Apple fans bear to see any criticism of Apple This is just a light article looking back at the past 10 years of Apple stuff Not all of it was super amazing There are other articles here looking at Apples really great products over the decade So get over it
alan14 said: I always find it interesting when anyone even slightly criticises Apple the fanbois come running out to complain loudly How can anyone possibly criticise the work of St Steve and his minionsBy the way did any of you use the G4 Cube it was so slow that using photoshop was like swimming through treacle and the touch sensitive onoff switch was a big mistake brush against it whist reaching for a CD from the toaster slot would switch the thing off
Meghann said: Oh my gosh what is your problem with Apple Im not sure whether all of the I think Steve must have been drunkpopping pills comments are supposed to be a joke but theyre not really funny Some of these products are not Apples best some of them actually are but they are far from failures This was a nice idea for an article but it just didnt work Im afraid Leave Apple alone unless you have something constructive to say
Jeff2 said: Harvey wrote iPod socks were meant to be a humorous accessory but this list treats it like a serious productMate this was clearly written as a humorous story but you treat it like a serious one
Joe said: Hey SimonDid Apple steal your girlfriend or something Whats with the mindless Apple-bashingWhile some of those products may not have been the very best of Apples work the worst of them is better than what the rest of the industry was putting out - and Ill bet 100 that YOU have never had a successful product that was 110 as successful of the WORST of the 10 Apple products youre attacking Worthless bloggers cant come up with anything original so they resort to linkbait trash like this - and I fell for it
David Staples said: Mention of the Apple Cube really should have covered its unfortunate habit of overheating and cracks in the case subsequently appearing No wonder Apple destroyed their unsold inventoryAnyone who thinks that there are no real duds in this list has clearly never used the iMac burger mouse a design so hideous that it spawned an entire mini-industry of slipover covers to improve its otherwise dismal ergonomicsThese delusional souls are probably typing their regurgitated Apple propaganda while wearing a pair of iPod socksHowever they seem to be typing so fast that they appear to have missed this statement in relation to the ROKRApple may now try to pretend that this was just a Motorola product that it had nothing to do with but why then was it unveiled at a special Apple event in September 2005Any comment on that Harvey
Harvey said: Its hard to find a real dud in this list Is Spotlight a dud Nope Is ROKR an Apple dud Its not an Apple product but a Motorola product iPod socks were meant to be a humorous accessory but this list treats it like a serious product Other products were well designed and produced They werent failures like the Zune for example
CLH said: Heh - a little forced But what would you expect from someone whose name anagrams to Joins ArmyBWAHA
Hammerjack said: I think its become fashionable for tech zines to dump on the Apple TV but for what it does the thing is a godsend--especially for the movies my kins like to watch over and over Instead of juggling DVDs for them I just hand over the ATV remote and they pick what they want Heaven
Dickdotcom said: AppleTV isnt as perfect as most Apple products but its way better than any of the competition and in conjunction with the remote app on the iPhone or iPod touch it becomes incredible All the things you list as problems are actually strengths as it means you get a clean user interface and all the messy encoding library stuff you do on your computer I bought mine the day it came out and have loved it ever since Even my wife loves it and thats saying something
PV said: 8 out of 10 not bad Mighty mouse is a reasonable success I clean it once a month but it works very well That may be due to the fact that I wash my hands from time to time Spotlight is one of the best tools on OS X -- not perfect but it works great 95 of the time It may have been slow on my PPC but it blazes on my MacBook Pro My only complaint is the limited view options under show all