Apple Pippin

From here.

Background/History:
Apple has had two "golden ages" in its 39 year history. The first golden age was in the 1980s, and was led by the Apple II and early Macintosh computers. The second has been since around 2000 and has been led by many products - the iMac line, the iPod, the iPhone - iGuess you could call it the iEra. But in between that first and second golden age came Apple's dark age: the 1990s. Many of Apple's products during the '90s were underperforming.
One of Apple's biggest flops was the Pippin, their attempt to enter the video game market. The system was designed to compete with the "fifth generation" systems, namely the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and Sega Saturn.
The system featured a 66 MHz PowerPC processor, making it similar in architecture to many early-mid 1990s Macintosh computers.The console also featured Internet connectivity. It offered a choice of 14.4, 28.8, or 33.6 kbit/s modems. Some games featured online play, and the system could be used to access the internet. In effect, the idea was for it to be a low end Macintosh computer - game console hybrid.
Like the 3DO, Apple created the hardware standard and third parties produced the system. In this case, two companies - Bandai and Katz Media (a Norwegian company) - manufactured the systems themselves. The Bandai Pippin launched in Japan on March 28, 1995 and in the USA on September 1, 1995. The Katz Media Pippin was sold in Europe and Canada, and launched on March 17, 1997.

What makes it obscure?
Like most obscure systems, this one was a flop. The main problem was the outdated technology. When the system was conceived in 1993, home computer prices were high and the game console market was dominated by 16 bit systems such as the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. At that time, the system's technical specs would have been impressive - it was leaps and bounds ahead of the 16 bit systems. In the two years between the system's conception and launch, home computer prices plummeted, even as the computers themselves became more powerful. On the game console front, the 16 bit era was coming to an end. The $599 Pippin launched around the same time as the 32 bit Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn, systems that were cheaper and far more powerful. One critic said that the Pippin tried to "market 1993 technology to a 1996 audience." The internet connectivity was also slow. By 1996-1997, 56 kbit/s modems were becoming common.
The Pippin was a classic case of too little, too late.