With the announcement of Steve Jobs' resignation from the helm of Apple, there are many questions about how new CEO Tim Cook will lead the company.
But it's also the perfect time reflect back on Jobs' tenure. The man has been the driving force behind many successful products and has helped revolutionize the tech industry, but his ideas haven't all been winners.
The good folks at Gizmodo have rounded up their list of Jobs' biggest tech flops during his lengthy tenure as CEO at Apple. Here's a look at the top five:
This computer was the first commercial computer with a Graphical User Interface, marking the end of DOS-style interfaces that relied on text input from the user. It's also the only computer to share a name with Jobs' daughter. At a cost just shy of $10,000, though, it was over-priced for home users, especially in 1983.
If you've ever thought, "gee, I'd love to control my desktop computer with a hockey puck," then you were probably sad when they got rid of the round mouse that came with the iMac in 1999. You're probably also not invited to many parties with Apple fans. Users everywhere became quickly frustrated by the odd shape to hold, and the inability to know by feel which direction you were holding the mouse.
Despite high reviews from consumers and tech critics alike, $350 was just too much for many iPod users to pay. Great sound quality wasn't enough to win over most consumers in 2006, leading to the end of the iPod Hi-Fi before it had even been in the market for two years.
Early Apple TV was a shell of the current little black box we know now. The first generation wouldn't let users buy or rent television shows, and forced one to go through iTunes for just about everything. Its heart (motherboard?) was in the right place, though, boasting a 160GB hard drive and 720p HD support, but it needed those tweaks to really catch on with the public.
Seeing the third generation iPod Shuffle always reminds me of this 2005 SNL sketch for the 'iPod Invisa': eventually, you get to a point where enough is enough, and you can't 'simplify' a product any more. The only button on this iPod Shuffle was the power/lock button, and you had to use a complex three-button remote to control it. Sometimes, you just need to have buttons.
Honourable mention goes to Final Cut Pro X, Ping, Power Mac G4 Cube and the iPod Photo.
If you're interested in any of Jobs' other handiwork, check out this interactive feature from the New York Times showing some of the 313 patents Jobs has his name on.
(Reuters Photo)
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