Apple's Greatest Mistakes of All Time

[TommyLee]

Remember, everybody's entitled to their opinion.

• Apple TV. I get no TV at all. Not even a DVD player. I have to re-purchase my entire movie collection via (guess who?) the Store! And they don't even have a fraction of my titles. Paying for your own slavery.
• 14 Day return policy. I think it's absurd that you cannot return unopened items after 14 days. Should be at least 30.
• The whole PowerMac G5 Bluetooth issue ranks at the top of my list. At $2,499, a top of the line product should have had all the bluetooth modules, airports, antennas and doohickeys. No options about it.

 

[OutThere]

[*]Apple TV. I get no TV at all. Not even a DVD player. I have to re-purchase my entire movie collection via (guess who?) the Store! And they don't even have a fraction of my titles. Paying for your own slavery.

Well you could rip your DVDs and save them to the Apple TV...

 

[TommyLee]

Well you could rip your DVDs and save them to the Apple TV...

It takes forever to rip and then forever to convert. but its cool. my Apple TV is up to $135.00 on eBay.

Moderator's note: Please post in the Marketplace forum if you wish to promote your auction.

 

[Cromulent]

Probably the games console they released in the early to mid 90's whose name escapes me. That was a mistake . Ditching the Newton as well must rank pretty highly.

 

[ZiggyPastorius]

Probably the games console they released in the early to mid 90's whose name escapes me. That was a mistake . Ditching the Newton as well must rank pretty highly.

That was the Pippin. I'd vote +1 for that.

 

[echeck]

I was going to say the Pippin as well.

I don't think Apple was foolish to ditch the Newton. I think it was just before its time and demand wasn't very high for it.

 

[SuperCompu2]

I was going to say the Pippin as well.

I don't think Apple was foolish to ditch the Newton. I think it was just before its time and demand wasn't very high for it.

My iPod touch fills the void well. I can't complain...

I personally think their biggest mistake was renaming the portable line to include the name Mac. I liked the seemingly happy "iBook" name, and the brawn of "PowerBook". MacBook Pro is just a mouthful, and while I have gotten accustomed to it, I still dislike uttering that many ugly syllables.

Also, PowerMac was fine! it had Mac in it! Gahhh!!!

 

[nick9191]

Windows Me, sorry Mobile Me
2.0 through 2.02 software for i/Pod/Phone
Moving to Intel

 

[EclipX]

G4 Cube

 

[Cameront9]

The Apple /// would have to be up there....

 

[cube]

No midrange machines.

 

[SDLSteve]

The 20th anniversary mac

 

[elppa]

Getting Microsoft to write software for the original Macintosh and John Sculley allowing Microsoft to use parts the Macintosh GUI to use for Windows.

Probably Apple not doing their own productivity software for the Mac in the first place would rank up there as well.

That had a lot to do with Apple losing their way in the 90s, amongst other reasons.

Not buying NeXT earlier. If Apple had OS X ready (and properly ready) 1999/2000 then they would have even more market share than they do now all things being equal I believe.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Getting Microsoft to write software for the original Macintosh and John Sculley allowing Microsoft to use parts the Macintosh GUI to use for Windows.

This one deserves another vote, if only because Scully himself identified it as the worst mistake he made as CEO. To clarify, the story goes that Microsoft threatened to stop developing software for the Mac if they didn't get the license. This was in '85.

Also:

Licensing Mac Clones: This experiment came as close to killing Apple as they have ever been close. It was doomed from the start.

Abandoning OpenDoc: Probably few remember this technology, but it could have revolutionized software development and been a bloatware killer. Jobs snuffed it shortly after taking over as CEO. I've always thought it was part of a back room deal between Apple and Microsoft, who if they weren't feeling threatened by OpenDoc, certainly should have been.

 

[Brianstorm91]

Getting rid of the 12" PowerBook?

 

[Sideonecincy]

I am going to have to agree with other people in this...the G4 Cube and getting rid of the 12" powerbook.

I never really understood the eMac and am glad it is gone.

 

[LynnW]

Apple's biggest mistake and nothing else even come close was the Lisa.

 

[FireArse]

Funny you should mention this...

Getting rid of the 12" PowerBook?

I remember after they pulled it, places ran out of their existing stock so quickly...

I think Apple staff realised; so had refurbs available (on the USA Store) for a least 6 months after. I was thinking of forwarding on to the UK.

My opinion, best machine made by Apple - on so many levels.

 

[IJ Reilly]

The Cube was an excellent computer, it was just too expensive to manufacture. It was hardly a "great mistake" let alone one of Apple's "greatest mistakes."

The eMac was originally introduced for educational markets only because the G4 iMac was too expensive for schools. It was released to the general market by popular demand.

 

[iGary]

G4 Cube

Probably one of their greatest triumphs considering the mini, iMac G4 and the iMac to follow all took lessons in it's putting a computer in a very small space.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Probably one of their greatest triumphs considering the mini, iMac G4 and the iMac to follow all took lessons in it's putting a computer in a very small space.

Exactly. The Cube is criticized simply because it didn't sell well, which is essentially all most people know about it. The engineering that went into this Mac was astounding, far beyond anything we're likely to see again. I don't know anyone who actually owned one who thinks they were a "mistake."

 

[Cromulent]

Abandoning OpenDoc: Probably few remember this technology, but it could have revolutionized software development and been a bloatware killer. Jobs snuffed it shortly after taking over as CEO. I've always thought it was part of a back room deal between Apple and Microsoft, who if they weren't feeling threatened by OpenDoc, certainly should have been.

Microsoft already had an OpenDoc style technology called OLE. It really wasn't that great, as a technology it had some serious flaws. Read the Wikipedia page, it is quite enlightening.

I actually remember using an OpenDoc application for a short while, it wasn't all that.

 

[TommyLee]

Carpal Tunnel

Furthering on the PowerBook thing, I love the keyboard. I can't stand the spacing on the MacBook keyboard. A colossal waste of space, contributing to my carpal tunnel syndrome.

 

[sushi]

The 20th anniversary mac

I have one, and love it. But I have to agree. Way too expensive and underpowered.

However, to see and touch one in person, it is so cool.

Licensing Mac Clones: This experiment came as close to killing Apple as they have ever been close. It was doomed from the start.

Agree.

Abandoning OpenDoc: Probably few remember this technology, but it could have revolutionized software development and been a bloatware killer.

Really, really, agree.

That was a sad day when OpenDoc was cancelled. Even IBM was on board.

OLE is not even close to the concept of OpenDoc. OLE sucks for the most part IMHO.

Jobs snuffed it shortly after taking over as CEO. I've always thought it was part of a back room deal between Apple and Microsoft, who if they weren't feeling threatened by OpenDoc, certainly should have been.

Hmm.... Interesting. Might be true.

Apple's biggest mistake and nothing else even come close was the Lisa.

I would disagree with this. Sure the Lisa was way to expensive, underpowered, etc. However, it is what gave birth the Mac. It was a learning platform if you will.

Getting rid of the 12" PowerBook?

Terrible idea on Apple's part.

The MBA does not fill that gap.

I wish that the MBP line would come in three sizes: 12, 15, and 17.

 

[Cromulent]

OLE is not even close to the concept of OpenDoc. OLE sucks for the most part IMHO.

So did OpenDoc. It required 25% of the RAM in your computer (well at least mine at the time) to just open an OpenDoc application. Sure once it was loaded you could open others without the load of the shared libraries but there were not enough OpenDoc applications out to make it worth it.