7 epic gadget flops

Apple may rule the tablet market these days, but the company hasn't always had such an easy go of it. Back in 1993, Apple released the Newton MessagePad, a handheld personal assistant device.

The MessagePad obviously didn't do much that readers in 2014 would find impressive, but it sported a few features that were ahead of their time: it could send faxes, store contacts, and even supported note-taking with a stylus. But the Newton never caught on with consumers, with sales totaling just a few hundred thousand in the five short years it was on the market. Most crucially, it failed to impress Steve Jobs, who pulled the plug on it in 1998.