An overview of 7 Steve Jobs products that failed to fulfill his and customer expectations.

1. 7 Steve Jobs Products That Failed
Not that Jobs’ product instinct was always infallible. Here are some of
the losses that did happen under Jobs’ watch.
Ayesha Ambreen - Marketer, Writer, Social Media Analyst, and Curator.

2. Steve Jobs – a short Bio
 Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October
5, 2011)
 Born in San Francisco, California
 Dropped out from Reeds
 Started Apple Computer on April 1, 1976, with Stephen
Wozniak
In 1985, Jobs resigned as Apple's CEO to begin a new
hardware and software company called NeXT, Inc.
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3. Steve Jobs – a short Bio
 Later, Jobs purchased an animation company called
Pixar Animation Studios.
 Pixar produced wildly popular animation films such as
Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles.
 The studio merged with Walt Disney in 2006, making
Steve Jobs Disney's largest shareholder.
 Apple eventually bought NeXT in 1997 for $429 million.
That same year, Jobs returned to his post as Apple's CEO.
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4. Steve Jobs
- an Entrepreneur, Innovator, Marketer, and Tech Visionary!
“Steve was among the greatest of American innovators -- brave enough
to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world,
and talented enough to do it.”
~ Barack Obama | President, United States
"For those of us lucky enough to get to work with Steve, it’s been an
insanely great honor.”
~ Bill Gates| Founder, Microsoft Corp.
“Whenever Larry [Page] and I sought inspiration or vision and leadership,
we need to look no farther than Cupertino.”
~ Sergey Brin | Co-Founder, Google

5. The Products!
―Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit
them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.‖
1 Apple Lisa
2 NeXT
3 Apple III
4 Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh
5 ROKR
6 Power Mac G4 Cube
7 MobileMe

6. Apple Lisa
January 19, 1983
It was the first personal
computer to offer a graphical
user interface in an inexpensive
machine aimed at individual
business users.

7. Apple Lisa
a powerful personal computer with a graphical user interface
(GUI) targeted toward business customers.
Lisa was a more advanced system than the Macintosh of
that time in many respects, such as:
• Inclusion of protected memory
• Cooperative multitasking,
• Sophisticated hard disk based operating system
• Built-in screensaver
• Advanced calculator with a paper tape and RPN

8. Apple Lisa
a powerful personal computer with a graphical user interface
(GUI) targeted toward business customers.
• Numeric keypad
• Data corruption protection schemes
• Larger higher-resolution display
• Support for up to 2 megabytes (MB) of RAM
• Expansion slots

9. BUT, In 1989, Apple disposed of approximately
2,700 unsold Lisas in a guarded landfill in Logan,
Utah, in order to receive a tax write-off on the unsold
inventory.
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10. Apple Lisa – Reasons for Failure
January 19, 1983
Sales Failure Competition Apple Macintosh
1 At an asking price 2 Largely unable to 3 The release of
of $10,000 in compete with the the Apple
1983, it cost the less expensive Macintosh in
equivalent of over IBM PCs, which 1984, which was
$22,000 today. were already faster and much
Intended beginning to less expensive,
business dominate was the most
customers were business desktop significant factor
reluctant to computing. in the Lisa's
purchase the demise.
machine.

11. NeXT
1986 -1996
After being let go from the
company he helped found,
Steve Jobs made his next
move. Taking to Redwood City,
California, Jobs created yet
another computer company,
NeXT.

12. NeXT
an American computer company that developed a series of computer
workstations.

13. NeXT
an American computer company that developed a series of
computer workstations.
• NeXT produced a PC OS and two generations of
workstations, each of them an inky black contrast to the
Snow White design scheme Steve chose for Apple.
• NeXT introduced the first NeXT Computer in 1988, and
the smaller NeXTstation in 1990.
• NeXT later released much of the NeXTstep system as a
programming environment standard called OpenStep.

14. NeXT
an American computer company that developed a series of
computer workstations.
Apple sued Next for "nefarious schemes" to take advantage
of the cofounders' insider information.
"It is hard to think that a $2 billion company with 4,300-plus
people couldn't compete with six people in blue jeans.―
~ Steve Jobs,
The suit was eventually dismissed before trial!

15. BUT, sales of the NeXT computers were limited, with
estimates of about 50,000 units shipped in total.
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16. NeXT
Evidence of Failure
• In total, 50,000 NeXT machines were sold.
• NeXT withdrew from the hardware business in 1993 and the
company was renamed NeXT Software Inc; subsequently 300
of the 540 staff employees were laid off.
• Apple purchased NeXT on December 20, 1996 for $429
million and 1.5 million shares of Apple stock.
• NeXTSTEP's processor-independent capabilities were
retained in Mac OS X, leading to both PowerPC and Intel x86
versions (although only PowerPC versions were publicly
available before 2006). Apple moved to Intel processors by
August 2006.

17. NeXT – Reasons for Failure
1986 - 1996
Excessive Spending Customers First! Pricing Strategy
1 In founding NeXT, 2 When many 3 NeXT’s original
Jobs spent money managers need to design was for a
very freely. When listen to potential workstation that
most start-up customers about college students
companies are their needs and would buy. But, it
frugal, Jobs spent wants in a was too expensive
millions on setting product, Jobs for the college
up his HQ and chose to ignore market, priced at
$100,000 for the everything that about $4,000 a
design of the everyone told him. cube.
NeXT brand
alone.

18. NeXT – Reasons for Failure
1986 - 1996
Time to market Storage Issues Wrong Business
4 NeXT computer's 5 Storage options 6 The NeXT platform
debut was delayed proved challenging may be better
by several months. for the first NeXT. known for what
Jobs responded, Later, magneto- was done with it
"Late? This optical drive was than for what it
computer is 5 years replaced w/ a actually did: in
ahead of its time!‖ floppy drive. But , 1991, Tim Berners-
But its still known 2.88 MB floppies Lee used one to
as ―yesterday's were expensive create the first web
technology and technology browser and web
tomorrow for twice didn’t supplant the server.
the price.‖ 1.44 MB floppy.

19. NeXT – Reasons for Failure
1986 - 1996
In an eviscerating 1991 article, Forbes said Jobs ―has made
fundamentally wrong decisions (with NeXT) that could well
doom the venture.‖

20. Apple III
May 19, 1980 - April 24, 1984
The Apple III is a business-
oriented personal computer
produced and released by Apple
Computer that was intended as
the successor to the Apple II
series, but largely considered a
failure in the market.

21. Apple III
a business computer and an eventual successor for the Apple II.
• Apple III ran twice as fast as the Apple II and had 128 KB
of RAM - twice as much memory as the Apple II.
• It was the first Apple computer to have a built-in floppy
drive, a 5.2" floppy drive that could store 143 KB of data.
• The machine was code-named Sara and used a
powerful operating system called SOS (standing for
Sara's Operating System and later changed to
Sophisticated Operating System).

22. BUT, The original run of Apple III was so unstable that
it was pulled and rereleased almost a year later.
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23. Apple III – Reasons for Failure
April 24, 1984
Flawed Design
1 Apple III had serious stability issues that required a
recall of existing machines. But later Apple was
eventually able to produce a reliable and dependable
version of the machine. However, damage to the
computer's reputation had already been done and it
failed to do well commercially as a direct result. In the
end, an estimated 65,000–75,000 Apple III computers
were sold. ―Direction came from the marketing
department.‖ said company co-founder Steve
Wozniak, and that’s where he places the blame.
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24. Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh
March 20, 1997 - March 14, 1998
Apple's Twentieth Anniversary
Macintosh is a limited-edition
personal computer that was
released in 1997 in celebration
of the company's 20th birthday.

25. Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh
a limited-edition personal computer released in celebration of the
Apple’s 20th birthday.
• On January 7th 1997 Apple unveils the Twentieth
Anniversary Macintosh at MacWorld Expo, San
Francisco in a grand finale demonstration.
• Codenamed Spartacus
• Apple manufactured 12,000 TAMs (Twentieth
Anniversary Macintosh), with a release run of 11,601.
• The TAM was only released in 5 countries: USA, Japan,
France, Germany, and the UK.
• The TAM was aimed at the office executive, rather than
the traditional home user.

26. Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh
a limited-edition personal computer released in celebration of the
Apple’s 20th birthday.
• The TAM featured a 250 MHz PowerPC 603e processor
and 12.1" active matrix LCD powered by an ATI 3D Rage
II video chipset with 2MB of VRAM capable of displaying
up to 16bit color at 800x600 or 640x480 pixels.
• The TAM came with a unique 75 key ADB keyboard
which featured leather palm-rests and a track-pad
instead of a mouse.
• TAM featured metallic green/gold paint and was one of
the first desktop based computers to use an LCD
display, in an enclosure only 2.5" deep

27. BUT, upon discontinuation in March 1998 the price for
TAM was set to a low $1,995 (Initial price was $7,500)
— either at or below the cost of production.
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28. TAM – Reasons for Failure
March 14, 1998
Time to market Backward Compatibility The Buzz
1 Heralded as a 2 Based on a 3 Some TAM
celebration of 20 PowerPC 603e experience a static
years of Apple processor, the TAM noise that plays
Computer Inc, the cannot run Mac OS through the
Twentieth X natively, even speakers even
Anniversary with the addition of when the sound
Macintosh arrived 3rd party processor level is muted. It
at the party one upgrade cards. took some time for
year late. Attempting such an Apple to confirm a
install can "brick" a problem existed
TAM. and devise a
lasting fix.

29. TAM – Reasons for Failure
March 14, 1998
Lack of Tech Support Over Pricing
4 Due to the scarcity 5 The simple
of scale, rather reason behind the
than training all price drops was
Apple authorized that despite an
technicians in award winning
repairing the TAM, advertising
Apple opted to ship campaign, the
faulty units to three TAM was simply
central locations overpriced for
worldwide – one what it was.
per continent.
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30. ROKR
September 7, 2005 - January 2006
The ROKR, a Motorola series of
phones that could play music
purchased from iTunes, came
out in 2005. With a capacity of
just 100 songs and a super slow
transfer time, the ROKR’s party
ended quickly.

31. ROKR
a Motorola candy-bar style phone with Apple-licensed technology to
play back music purchased from the iTunes Music Store.

32. ROKR
a Motorola candy-bar style phone with Apple-licensed technology to
play back music purchased from the iTunes Music Store.
• The first cell phone equipped with a version of Apple’s
iTunes software.
• The phone allowed users to transfer up to 100 songs
from iTunes to their phone using a USB cable.
• The Motorola ROKR featured a color display that can be
used to view album art while songs are playing.
• Built-in stereo speakers and stereo headphones that
also work as a mobile headset with microphone.

33. ROKR
a Motorola candy-bar style phone with Apple-licensed technology to
play back music purchased from the iTunes Music Store.
Steve Jobs described the ROKR as ―an iPod shuffle on
your phone,‖ referring to Apple’s diminutive flash-based
MP3 player that can store about 100 songs — the same
capacity as the ROKR.

34. BUT, Motorola CEO, Ed Zander, later accused Apple
of purposely undercutting the ROKR
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35. ROKR – Reasons for Failure
January 2006
Out Dated Design Super Slow Limited Song Capacity
1 Motorola ROKR 2 Transferring music 3 The phone was
looked like a late to the phone was equipped with an
nineties Nokia but slow compared to upgradeable 512
played songs from dedicated players MB microSD
iTunes library. It due to lack of memory card but
had an outdated support for Hi- firmware allowed
design and Speed USB, and only 100 songs to
conventional there was also no be loaded at any
interface. wireless transfer. time. The arbitrary
song limit hurt the
ROKR's appeal.
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36. Power Mac G4 Cube
July 19th, 2000 - July 3rd, 2001
The Power Mac G4 Cube is a
small form factor Macintosh
personal computer from Apple
Inc. Its cube shape is
reminiscent of the NeXTcube
from NeXT, acquired by Apple in
1996.

37. Power Mac G4 Cube
a small form factor Macintosh personal computer from Apple Inc.
• The diminutive 8" x 8" x 8" cube, suspended in a 10" tall
Acrylic (PMMA) enclosure, housed a PowerPC G4
processor running at 450-500 MHz.
• Equipped with unconventional vertical slot-loading DVD-
ROM or CD-RW drive.
• It had an upgradeable video card in a standard AGP slot.
• Market between the iMac G3 and the Power Mac G4,
Cube was the first desktop configuration offering since
the discontinued Macintosh G3 almost 2 years earlier.

38. Power Mac G4 Cube
a small form factor Macintosh personal computer from Apple Inc.
―The G4 Cube is simply the coolest computer ever.‖—
Steve Jobs, unveiling it at Macworld Expo in New York.

39. BUT, In July 2001 Apple issued a short and slightly unusual
press release announcing the product was to be put "on ice". Power
Mac G4 Cube was one of the shortest-lived Tech Products ever!
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40. Power Mac G4 Cube – Reasons for Failure
July 3rd, 2001
No Monitor! Mold Lines Rat's nest of wires
1 A separate monitor 2 Cubes suffered 3 To make the whole
— with either an from a machine fit inside
ADC or VGA manufacturing the clear
connection — was issue that led to enclosure without
required for the faint lines requiring the user
Cube, in contrast to (cracks/mold lines) to disconnect
the all-in-one iMac in the clear plastic every cable, all the
series. Not case. This was wires plugged into
including a monitor often considered the bottom of the
leaded to slow damaging to the Cube.
sales. aesthetic quality of
the computer.
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41. MobileMe
July 9, 2008 - February 24, 2011
MobileMe is a subscription-
based collection of online
services and software offered by
Apple Inc. Formerly, it was
known as .Mac and iTools.
MobileMe targeted Mac OS X,
Windows, iPad, iPhone, and
iPod touch users.

42. MobileMe
an Internet services for Mac OS X, iOS, and Windows.
• Members of MobileMe were given a @me.com
• No longer restricted to Mac OS X software such as Mail
and iCal.
• Access to personal data from any computer connected
to the Internet using the web interface at me.com.
• MobileMe allowed users to track the location of their
iPhone, iPod touch or iPad via the web portal at me.com.
• MobileMe maintained a synchronized address book and
calendar feature using Push functions.

43. MobileMe
an Internet services for Mac OS X, iOS, and Windows.
• MobileMe had two different plans:
 The Individual plan included 20 GB of email and file storage
and 200 GB of monthly data transfer.
 The Family Pack included 40 GB of storage split among one
20 GB individual (primary) and four 5 GB sub-accounts, each
sub-account having its own email address, online storage and
being able to use all the MobileMe features.

44. MobileMe
an Internet services for Mac OS X, iOS, and Windows.
• MobileMe featured:
 public photo and video gallery
 iDisk, an online storage repository
 Users of Mac OS X v10.5 or later can use the iLife '08 or iLife '09
or iLife '11 application iWeb to publish websites hosted on their
MobileMe account
 Ajax and Dynamic HTML to simulate the look and feel of desktop
applications within the user's web browser.
 MobileMe Control Panel
 Mail Beta and Calendar

45. BUT, within a week of launch, Apple had to issue an
apology to its MobileMe users for synchronization issues.
In February, 2011, Apple discontinued MobileMe.
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46. MobileMe
an Internet services for Mac OS X, iOS, and Windows.
―The .Mac to MobileMe transition was a lot rockier than we
had hoped but everything is now up and running,‖ Apple
spokesman, Bill Evans, told Macworld. ―We want to
apologize to our loyal customers and express our
appreciation for their patience by giving all current
subscribers an automatic 30-day extension to their
MobileMe subscription free of charge.‖

47. MobileMe
an Internet services for Mac OS X, iOS, and Windows.
Team,
The launch of MobileMe was not our finest hour. There are several
things we could have done better: – MobileMe was simply not up to
Apple’s standards – it clearly needed more time and testing. The
MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn
about Internet services. And learn we will. The vision of MobileMe is
both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to make it a service
we are all proud of by the end of this year.
~ Steve Jobs.

48. MobileMe – Reasons for Failure
February 24, 2011
TECH Issues Inadequate Free Trial Conflicts with Outlook
1 The launch of 2 The free trial of 3 Initial versions of
MobileMe was MobileMe the Windows
plagued by various inadvertently control panel
issues. MobileMe, charged some allowed
as a .Mac Australian and synchronization of
successor, was European Outlook accounts.
initially criticized customers’ credit A mid-2008 update
during its launch for cards, leading removed the ability
being unstable and Apple to issue when Outlook is
for having syncing refunds and extend using Microsoft
problems. the free trial to four Exchange Server
months. Calendars and
Contacts.

49. MobileMe
an Internet services for Mac OS X, iOS, and Windows.
In May 2011, Fortune magazine reported that during the summer of
2008, after MobileMe had launched to mostly negative reviews, Steve
Jobs summoned the MobileMe team to a meeting in the Town Hall
auditorium at 4 Infinite Loop. After asking them ―What MobileMe is
supposed to do," and someone answered, Jobs reportedly shot back,
"So why the *%$# doesn't it do that?"

50. Lessons Learned
The best businesspeople don't know
Never let your Remember 2 Ps:
Vision hinder you Price and everything. They're the ones who are brave
from making great Positioning! and truthful enough to admit mistakes--and
products!
learn the most from them along the way.
Test and Improve.
Never launch a
Customer is the beta product.
King! Keep them
Hapy.
Do Research and
Market Timing is Publish clear
Everything, Do not message!
Rush or Delay.

51. References:
• Marketing Management, Philip Kotler (13th Edition)
• http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/286886/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.
• http://www.imore.com/2008/08/05/steve-jobs-on-
mobileme-full-email/
• http://www.apple.com/
Unless otherwise stated any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author. You can contact me at
ambreen.ayesha@hotmail.com for further information.
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52. THANK YOU!
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ambreen.ayesha@hotmail.com