By and large, Apple is the sort of company that stands behind its technological innovations. Unlike, say, Google or Microsoft, which have both earned a reputation for axing products and initiatives before they have the chance to flourish, Apple is more steadfast in its approach.
That being said, there are still notable cases in which Apple has reversed course, killing off tech features that seemingly haven’t clicked with consumers. I would argue that in most of these instances, Apple has been premature in throwing in the towel.
Here are three specific tech innovations from Apple that are now fully discontinued, despite having been brilliant ideas in their own right. I’d love to see the company bring each of these concepts back to the mainstream at some point in the future, perhaps in a remixed or reimagined fashion.
3D Touch
Mutitouch with a bit of kick
Apple introduced 3D Touch alongside the iPhone 6S in 2015. As a force detection system, 3D Touch worked in tandem with multitouch and the Haptic Engine within the handset to unlock more granular pressure sensitivity. Wooven throughout iOS, it allowed for ‘peeking’ or previewing content with a firm press down on the screen, and then ‘popping’ said content into place with a firmer press.
In practice, 3D Touch worked miraculously well. The haptic vibrations of the feature were compelling in their tactility, and it unlocked a whole new way to interface with the iPhone. Unfortunately, Apple killed off the feature starting with the iPhone 11 lineup in 2019, replacing it with a Haptic Touch equivalent that conspicuously lacks pressure sensing capabilities.
While Apple never gave an official reason for discontinuing 3D Touch, it probably came down to cost and a lack of embracement of the feature from third-party developers. At the very least, pressure sensitivity lives on in the form of the Apple Watch’s Force Touch system and the Mac’s trackpad pressure sensitivity.
Touch Bar
A squandered opportunity
From between 2016 and 2021, higher-end MacBook Pro laptops came standard with a controversial hardware inclusion: the Touch Bar. A slim OLED display strip capable of dynamically surfacing content, the feature replaced traditional (and physical) function row keys in the process.
Conceptually, I loved the Touch Bar. Sure, we’re now living in an era where a touchscreen MacBook Pro is a reality, but I always appreciated the superior ergonomics of having a touch target right next to my various keyboard keys. The Touch Bar was excellent for scrubbing through content and stowing away advanced functionalities, and it made function keys look archaic by comparison.
For better or worse, the rest of the world disagreed with me. The lack of a physical escape key proved especially controversial (though Apple did later rectify this oversight in a revision), and developers simply didn’t build out the software ecosystem the company had probably hoped for. Apple’s haphazard approach is at least partially to blame — the Touch Bar never made its way to the Magic Keyboard or to the MacBook Air, limiting its growth potential.
Lampshade computers
The best PC form factor
For a brief period of time in the early 2000s, Apple was making all-in-one desktop computers in the shape of a lamp shade. The now-iconic iMac G4 featured an actuating flat-screen display panel secured to a base, which looked and felt as futuristic in 2002 as it does in 2026.
Soon after, however, Apple reverted to the iMac G3’s style of housing the computer behind the display as opposed to in the base. This has remained the status quo up through today, even in the Apple Silicon era. Modern iMacs are impossibly thin, yes, but I’d argue they lack the G4’s design charisma.
Interestingly, Apple has rekindled the spirit of the iMac G4 in the form of the HomeView, which adopts a similar screen-on-a-base motif. Personally, I’d love to see Apple return to this iconic design language in a next-generation iMac, or, alternatively, in an iPad desktop stand accessory of some kind.
