Apple vaporware

[WebHead]

The revelation that macOS' new Stage Manager feature has been floating around for over 15 years got me thinking, what are some of the best products never released by Apple over the years?

The first ones that spring to mind for me:

• "Pippin" videogame console (probably redundant now with Apple TV, iPad and iPhone)
• "Home on iPod" user account (definitely redundant now with cloud computing)
• PowerBook G5 (abandoned due to "the mother of all thermal challenges")

 

[Juicy Box]

AirPower- after this public failure, I think Apple will probably be more cautious with what they announce.

Apple Television - not announced, but one of the longest running rumors that keeps popping up, and never materialized. I remember the first time I heard about the rumor in 2004 or 2005. It comes back every once in a while.

 

[jav6454]

3.0 GHz G5 Mac Pro, we all know what happened to PPC CPUs.

 

[I7guy]

Apple car.

 

[jav6454]

Apple car.

In the end I think the Apple Car is just Apple testing CarPlay software to sell later to automakers.

 

[Shanghaichica]

AirPower. Although I think the MagSafe charger is a good substitute.

 

[XboxEvolved]

The revelation that macOS' new Stage Manager feature has been floating around for over 15 years got me thinking, what are some of the best products never released by Apple over the years?

The first ones that spring to mind for me:

• "Pippin" videogame console (probably redundant now with Apple TV, iPad and iPhone)
• "Home on iPod" user account (definitely redundant now with cloud computing)
• PowerBook G5 (abandoned due to "the mother of all thermal challenges")

Not sure that Pippin would count as vaporware, but it was rare. What is Home on iPod?

Everything else seems like it was mentioned. I can't really thing of anything. I remember when everyone was waiting for that TV...seems like the car is the next Apple TV set..

The Airpower is definitely the most notorious of the modern Apple though and kind of is one of those things that makes me feel like there are a few cracks in Apple nowadays.

Before that the most notorious was probably Copland before Apple bought NeXT and brought Steve Jobs back. They went so far as to do fake demos of it, many of which you can still find on YouTube.

 

[WebHead]

What is Home on iPod?

Don't think it was ever formally announced but it showed up in a beta at one point. You could use the iPod to sync your user account between Macs. Largely redundant nowadays thanks to iCloud.

Before that the most notorious was probably Copland before Apple bought NeXT and brought Steve Jobs back. They went so far as to do fake demos of it, many of which you can still find on YouTube.

I did like how they were going to allow customisable themes on the classic Mac OS before Jobs put the kibosh on it. The default designs were unofficially available online. One of them even made it into the Batman and Robin movie - on a 20th Anniversary Mac!

 

[ApfelKuchen]

I'd hope there'd be plenty of discarded concepts in the R&D graveyard. There's no shortage of ideas that may be deserving of trial development that in the end don't pan out for one reason or another. The fact that we have so few to talk about just tells us something about Apple secrecy.

From my perspective, the more successful a company's product introductions are, the more selective that company is about what concepts they bring to market.