Apple has made a number of missteps over the years. From Bendgate to You Keep It Wrong, we feature the biggest fails.
The company often tries to sweep problems under the rug and rarely admits its own mistakes. Buyers hardly get an apology for this. Instead, they prefer to simply give out freebies, offer discounted repairs or extended warranties. A journey through the history of the best and funniest Apple fails.
Air Power (2019)
The latest example of a major misstep is the AirPower Qi charging mat, announced in 2017, which iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods owners should have used to charge their devices wirelessly. In 2019, Apple had to admit that the project had technically failed.
Batterygate (2017)
At the end of 2017, complaints about degraded performance on older iPhone models were piling up. Geekbench developer John Poole documented in a Reddit post that iOS specifically shuts down performance to conserve battery power. After initial hesitation, Apple confirmed the throttling and justified it with the fact that it should prevent sudden crashes. However, due to the secrecy, users saw it as a hidden attempt to force them to buy a new device.
don’t let #BatteryGate get you down Stop waiting on Apple and replace your iPhone battery yourself! https://t.co/cYknpVwS2G pic.twitter.com/JyZv5va1G0
— iFixit (@iFixit) April 17, 2018
Ultimately, Apple apologized for the incident and built a feature into iOS to disable throttling. The company also offered owners of an iPhone 6 or newer a battery replacement at a reduced price of 29 euros until the end of 2018.
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Hockey Puck Mouse (1998)
There really isn’t much to say about this round mouse except that it was impossible to use. A classic example of form over functionality that went absolutely over the top. The completely unergonomic shape of the mouse meant that you had to cramp your fingers to press the button. After all, the colorful iMac G3 that came with the mouse has now become a cult object. And somehow the mouse is part of it. But only somehow.
Speaking of the mouse, the hockey puck hasn’t been Apple’s only design blunder in this area. The best example is the wireless Magic Mouse 2, whose charging port is on the underside. Load mouse and use it at the same time? none.
iPhone 6 Bendgate (2014)
The iPhone 6 heralded a new era at Apple: From then on, the company offered its smartphones in two sizes. The regular iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were both larger than the previous iPhone 5 model and that’s where the problems started. As is typical for Apple, the devices had to be slimmer despite the larger surface area, and the first complaints appeared only a few days after the start of sales. On the Macrumors forum, a user posted a photo of their iPhone 6 Plus showing a clear bend. Shortly thereafter, YouTube was full of videos of people trying to bend their iPhones by hand. According to Apple, only a few users were affected by the problem, but Apple offered free replacements if the bend was actually caused by normal use.
iPhone #bendgate what real https://t.co/P88Sy9u40x pic.twitter.com/kBCqenSqzH
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) May 24, 2018
The folding function of the iPhone 6 became known on the Internet as “Bendgate”. Apple gave the subsequent iPhone 6s a thicker aluminum frame to prevent this kind of occurrence from happening again. Since the iPhone 6 Bendgate, there have been a number of reviewers who test every new smartphone for its structural strength. Among others, this includes Zack Nelson, who runs the YouTube channel JerryRigEverthing and subjects smartphones to an ordeal test to examine their resilience. The new iPad Pro also fell victim to this test at the end of 2018, simply folding in the middle under the “two-thumb test”. In fact, some iPad Pro owners complained that their devices were slightly warped. Many felt reminded of Bendgate and the reactions were so plentiful that Apple felt compelled to publish a statement in early 2019. The company acknowledged that some devices may have slight bends, but that’s normal and doesn’t affect functionality.
Apple Maps (2014)
Meanwhile, Apple’s own mapping service no longer really shows that it was once one of the company’s most controversial missteps. Introduced with the iPhone 6, Apple Maps was supposed to replace the already excellent Google Maps on iOS, but ended up being a disaster. Apple Maps was so bad that many users were misled by the navigation and in some places buildings, cities or entire islands were wrongly drawn. That being said, the satellite imagery was partially black and white or fully flat rather than the promised 3D.
Apple Maps was one of the rare occasions when Apple issued an official apology that has since been deleted from Apple’s site. In the apology, Tim Cook wrote that the launch of Apple Maps failed and that everything will be done to fix the problems. In the meantime, users should simply go back to using the map alternatives from Google, Waze or Bing.
iPhone 4 Antenna Gate (2010)
After two years of the slippery plastic backs of the iPhone 3 and iPhone 3GS, in 2010 Apple introduced the iPhone 4 with a glass back and an aluminum frame. Admittedly, the chic design had a fatal problem: Shortly after the market launch, buyers noticed that the signal suddenly disappeared when making a call and the call was terminated. The aluminum frame acted as an array of antennas that simply locked into place in the hand in certain positions.
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Apple’s first answer to the problem: “You keep it wrong”. This saying went down in the history of the Internet and is still used today when a device is not working as it should. A few weeks later, however, Steve Jobs apologized for the fiasco that has become known as “Antennagate” and vowed to remedy the situation. What the solution looked like, you ask yourself. Apple simply distributed colorful bumper cases that covered the aluminum frame – that’s what I call a practical and cheap solution. At least for Apple.
Apple Pippin (1996)
Okay, this is practically an antique, but the Pippin was one of the biggest failures for young Apple. Developed in partnership with Bandai, the Pippin was originally intended to be an inexpensive Mac for gaming. The result was an overpriced gaming console with Internet access and a desktop operating system that only sold 42,000 copies, believe it or not. You don’t even have to compare that to the 100 million units sold by the original PlayStation to see that the Pippin was an absolute flop. 15 months after its launch, the Pippin was put out of its woes and discontinued – shortly after Steve Jobs returned to Apple.
Butterfly keyboard (since 2016)
While our list mostly includes inglorious examples of Apple’s iPhones, there are plenty of questionable design choices among the popular MacBooks as well. Practically every year new problems come to light, only recently IFixit reported on the Stagelight problem, where the light literally goes out on the MacBooks due to the connection cables being too short.
One problem that has been affecting all MacBooks since 2016 is the so-called butterfly keyboard, which Apple proudly introduced in the 2016 12-inch MacBook. It has since been installed in all new MacBooks. Compared to the classic scissor keyboard, the butterfly keyboard can be much flatter, which allows the MacBook itself to be built flatter. Aside from the fact that the keyboard can be awkward and uncomfortable to type on, it’s also extremely prone to dust. As soon as only small dust grains get under the keyboard, the keys can jam and no longer register input. Apple has meanwhile installed a new version of the keyboard in its current MacBooks, in which a silicone layer is hidden under the keys. According to Apple, this should ensure that typing noises are dampened, but many suspect that Apple wants to protect the keyboard against the ingress of dust.