Today, I’m going to highlight three things from the Steve Jobs era that turned out to be a flop.
Apple Made Mistakes in the Past and has a Handful of Flops Under its Belt, Here are Three from the Steve Jobs Era as CEO
Today’s the day Steve Jobs sent out a company-wide memo admitting that MobileMe was a failure and that they should have taken more time to refine it before releasing it for users.
So, keeping that in mind, I decided to compile a list of things from the Steve Jobs era as CEO which didn’t quite take off, and eventually turned into a flop.
MobileMe
MobileMe was a paid service by Apple, launched back in 2000, that offered users online storage, an email account, the ability to sync data and more.
However, it didn’t work out at all, Steve Jobs called a meeting where he famously roasted the entire MobileMe team, and eventually it was scrapped.
But, from its ashes, iCloud was born. If MobileMe hadn’t flopped, there probably wouldn’t be the iCloud we know and love today.
The iTunes Phone
Back in 2005, Apple and Motorola partnered up to make the ‘iTunes Phone,’ otherwise known as Moto ROKR E1.
The phone had the ability to sync with iTunes, allowing users to take their library of music with them. However, the phone itself was notoriously bad, would only sync up to 100 songs, and the awful, slow software only added to the overall insult.
While the product flopped, Apple changed the game with the release of the first iPhone in 2007.
iTunes Ping
Back in 2010, Apple launched a music-focused social network which was meant to bring artists and listeners together . It didn’t quite take off and after a lot of back and forth, Apple scrapped it completely in 2012.
Should Apple try this again? Definitely not. We don’t need a new social network at this point in time as the digital space is oversaturated with different social networks.
But, I wouldn’t mind a social network-like experience that is meant for Apple users only.
Wrap Up
There are a lot of other things that might be considered a ‘flop,’ but I refuse to add them to the list because a product like the Apple iPod Hi-Fi is nothing but a work of art, and I wouldn’t call it a failure for different reasons.
We tend to believe that a certain era in a company was flawless, but that’s not true. Mistakes were made during Steve Jobs’ era, and mistakes were made by Tim Cook as well.
It just goes to show how each company has a human element to it, and it’s okay to have a few failures or flops under the belt. Greatness can’t be achieved once you experiment with things, and Steve Jobs always got things right when something went south.
Don’t worry, I’ll do a list of flops for the Tim Cook era as well, and there are a lot of things that didn’t quite work out.
Look right at you, Apple Watch Edition (the very first one).
