Apple appears to quietly admit defeat over a controversial iPhone accessory that’s vanished from its website

Apple seems to have quietly removed FineWoven iPhone cases from its website.

Apple seems to have thrown in the towel on its heavily-criticized FineWoven iPhone cases.

Introduced last year with the iPhone 15 launch, the FineWoven cases were Apple’s eco-friendlier alternative to leather cases.

However, Apple seems to have stopped selling FineWoven cases for the iPhone 15 and hasn’t introduced them for the new iPhone 16 announced Monday. As of this writing, a search for FineWoven cases on Apple’s website doesn’t return results for iPhone cases, though FineWoven wallets and AirTag key rings are still listed for sale there.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shortly after the cases debuted last year, criticisms began rolling in. Users said the suede-like cases, made from microtwill material, scratched too easily and permanently, collected a lot of dust, looked washed-out, and retained circular indents from MagSafe charging.

For the iPhone 16, Apple subsidiary Beats introduced new cases that support MagSafe charging and Apple’s new Camera Control feature.

It’s somewhat rare for Apple to discontinue a product so quickly. But the company has made some notable changes to its offerings in the past — even going so far as to scrap an unreleased product that was already teased.

In September 2017, the company announced an AirPower wireless charging mat, which was intended to charge an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods at the same time. Apple said it’d launch in 2018 but it was never released and in March 2019, the company officially canceled it, saying the accessory “will not achieve our high standards.”

Apple’s butterfly keyboards, introduced in 2015 and widely criticized by tech reviewers and users for keys that would get stuck, were completely phased out by May 2020 — one $50 million class-action lawsuit later.