Brief shelf lives
Shortest-Lived Apple Products
Products that arrived, made noise, and left the catalog quickly.
iPad (3rd generation)The Retina display arrived on the iPad, quadrupling the pixels.
iPhone XTen years in, Apple tore up its template: an all-screen OLED front (notch and all), Face ID instead of Touch ID, and gestures instead of a Home button.
iPhone 12 Pro MaxThe photography flagship: a bigger main sensor with sensor-shift stabilisation and a longer telephoto, in the largest 12-series body.
iPad Air 11" (M2)The Air moved to the M2, doubled base storage to 128 GB, relocated the camera to the landscape edge, and — for the first time — offered a choice of sizes.
iPad Air 13" (M2)A 13" Air gives you Pro-sized canvas and M2 power without the OLED price — the affordable big tablet many had been waiting for.
iPad (1st generation)Critics called it "just a big iPhone"; buyers made it a sensation, selling a million in under a month.
iPad mini 3The most minor iPad update ever: it bolted Touch ID and a gold option onto the mini 2 and called it new.
iPhone 12 ProThe Pro added a LiDAR scanner for instant low-light focus and AR depth, plus a shiny stainless frame and ProRAW photography.
Apple Watch Series 7Slimmer bezels grew the screen enough to fit a tiny full QWERTY keyboard, and a crack-resistant front and fast charging made it the toughest, most usable Watch so far.
iPod nano (1st generation)When Jobs pulled the nano from the coin pocket of his jeans, the audience gasped.
iPod nano (3rd generation)A stout, square little nano that could finally play video and browse album art in Cover Flow — beloved and mocked in equal measure for its dumpy proportions.
iPod touch (1st generation)Essentially an iPhone minus the cellular radio, it put multitouch and soon the App Store into the hands of millions not ready to switch carriers — and a generation of kids.
iPod nano (5th generation)The tall nano packed in a surprising amount: a video camera, an FM tuner you could pause, and a pedometer — a Swiss-army gadget the size of a stick of gum.
iPhone 5Taller, lighter and aluminium-backed, the iPhone 5 retired the 30-pin dock for the reversible Lightning plug — annoying at first, indispensable for a decade.
Apple Watch Series 2The Watch leaned into fitness: onboard GPS to track runs without a phone, true swim-proofing, and a 1000-nit screen you could read mid-stride.
iPad (5th generation)Apple refocused the standard iPad on value, dropping it to $329 with a brighter screen and the A9 — a hit with schools and families.
Apple Watch Series 4The first true Watch redesign: larger curved-corner screens, a 64-bit S4, fall detection, and an electrocardiogram on your wrist that could flag heart-rhythm problems.
iPhone XSThe iPhone X refined: the leading-edge 7 nm A12, dual cameras with Smart HDR, and a new gold finish.Last updated: 2026-06-28