Apple’s Worst Products and Design Fails of All Time

Apple has a reputation for developing high-quality, innovative products, thanks in large part to the work of the visionary Steve Jobs and Chief Design Officer Jony Ive.

Revolutionary products like the Macintosh, iPod, and iPhone have completely changed the way we interact with technology in our day-to-day lives, but that doesn’t mean that the company hasn’t also produced some total duds.

Here are some of the worst and most questionable product designs in Apple’s 40-year history…

iPhone 11 Pro

It’s probably premature to criticize a product too much before it’s even released, but that didn’t stop some people from reacting adversely to the design of the iPhone 11 Pro when Apple revealed it earlier in September.

Granted, the phone’s three camera lenses do take up a lot of space, not to mention that they look like they’re staring into your soul. Some have even claimed that the design triggers trypophobia, the fear of holes.

Now that the phone is available for purchase, the high photo quality might assuage these users’ fears, that is, if they can afford the $1000 price tag.

iPhone 6 ‘Bendgate’

The iPhone 11 is far from the first, or the most serious, design flaw in the product line’s history.

The iPhone 6 came under heavy scrutiny soon after its 2014 release when several pesky YouTube reviewers posted videos of the phone bending under pressure, a problem that also led to touchscreen failure on some devices.

Apple at first tried to downplay the issue, but eventually conceded and offered replacements for any phones that bent under conditions of normal use.

iPhone 4 ‘Antennagate’

The 2010 release of the iPhone 4 came with one huge innovation, the front-facing camera, and one major design change, a sleek stainless steel frame wrapped around the phone’s exterior.

This frame was more than just cosmetic, though, as it also contained the phone’s antenna, which created a headache for Apple when users discovered that holding the phone in certain ways caused a significant drop in signal strength.

Apple’s initial solution was simply advising users not to hold the phone that way, though this unsurprisingly didn’t go over well, and they later changed their tune and offered everyone a free case that solved the problem.

So. Many. Dongles.

Another quirk of Apple’s recent iPhone designs is the removal of the headphone jack in favor of the Lightning connector starting with the iPhone 7 in 2016.

At the same time, the company updated its MacBook lines to require the new USB-C connector for all of their data ports.

Supporters claimed these moves were Apple trying to push technology forward, while cynics saw them as a cash grab to force consumers to buy the company’s proprietary connectors, but the most notable consequence was the proliferation of a seemingly endless array of ugly white dongles as users tried to find ways to connect their peripherals to Apple’s increasingly limited inputs.