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NewLaunches.com lists Apple's top 10 product flops and there is plenty to be learned from it.
Apple rates highly as an innovator in my view, but the company has been inconsistent in its long history.
Two disruptive innovations were big hits: the Mac and the iPod because
- they changed the basis of competition by fulfilling new customer needs
- they initially appealed in marginal markets
- they appeared inferior in some ways so that competitors ignored the products and their early success.
I think the new Apple TV system also will be a successful product and it rates a high Disruption Score for many of the same reasons.
Apple's top 10 Flops
10. Cyberdog: alternative browser and set of open web applications
9. Taligent: new operating system JV with IBM
8. EWorld: online ecosystem thingee JV with America Online
7. Pippin: game console
6. 20th Anniversary Mac
5. Motorola ROKR: phone + iPod sort of
4. Macintosh TV: Mac + TV sort of
3. Macintosh portable: 16lb of joy for $6,500
2. Lisa: $10k not sure why it flopped
1. Newton: Still the number one cult product of 1993
Looking at the list, some of the products were ahead of their time. Many of Apple's product flops seem to suffer from classic traps of would-be disruptors:
- Apple sometimes bet the farm on new technology and features ahead of clear market feedback from users (Newton)
- it tried to cram a new disruptive idea into a known business (Motorola ROKR phone, Eworld)
- it tried to create an incrementally better product in a crowded market (Cyberdog web browser, Pippin game console.
**Other Views**
ArsTechnica says not-so-fast with some of the nominations.
Harvard Business School says Apple's new strategy is being second to market.
Tech writer John Dvorak says Apple's iPhone is a pending flop that should be cancelled ASAP: The cellphone market is consolidating and mature so that margins are slim and new entrants can't compete without losing money, he says. Many commenters on Engadget disagree.
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