One of the most interesting stories around bubble memory may be that of the IBM Aquarius. Contrary to the common notion that IBM had "totally missed the personal computer revolution of the 1970s", IBM had indeed several personal and/or home computer projects in the works, some internal projects, and there are also sketches of designs commissioned to Eliot Noyes Associates.
The most complete of these projects must have been the IBM Aquarius, as of 1977, which had progressed to fully designed production prototypes, developed under the lead of Bill Lowe and featuring a quite gorgeous, dark-red product design by Tom Hardy, which can be seen in "Delete" by Paul Atkinson (Bloomsbury Academic, London, New York, 2013). The most intriguing aspect of this project probably was that it would come with an entire ecosystem for the retail of its software (think IBM going full Apple App Store in the 1970s), as featured by a card slot on the right side of the computer, where software on cards was to be inserted and could expose special functionality by a (sensor) keypad that would show up in key-size cutouts in the case. And, as may be guessed from context, the software on these cards was to be delivered by the wonders of bubble memory. However, while bubble memory was often touted by IBM as a future technology, it eventually proved as the Achilles heel of the project, when the completed prototype was demonstrated to the executive board and concerns were raised regarding the reliability of the unproven technology.
Tom Hardy, as quoted in "Delete": "The Aquarius would have blown the socks off of everybody. I felt, and a lot of people felt this was going to be a big deal and make IBM believe in this whole business." And, regarding the demise by bubble memory: "Because it was relatively new for these kind of applications and whereas the team had gotten this thing to work, the company just didn't want to take a chance and push it. IBM should have been able to do it. If they would have pushed that technology and put all the resources behind it like they'd done with other things in the past, a lot of folks thought that it would have been successful and would have just blown the whole thing wide open."
While the IBM of the mid-to-late 1970s was evidently not the company to do this (and I can see the risks that might have been posed by this to the reputation of what was still the core product), it's one of the more fascinating what-if scenarios.
The most complete of these projects must have been the IBM Aquarius, as of 1977, which had progressed to fully designed production prototypes, developed under the lead of Bill Lowe and featuring a quite gorgeous, dark-red product design by Tom Hardy, which can be seen in "Delete" by Paul Atkinson (Bloomsbury Academic, London, New York, 2013). The most intriguing aspect of this project probably was that it would come with an entire ecosystem for the retail of its software (think IBM going full Apple App Store in the 1970s), as featured by a card slot on the right side of the computer, where software on cards was to be inserted and could expose special functionality by a (sensor) keypad that would show up in key-size cutouts in the case. And, as may be guessed from context, the software on these cards was to be delivered by the wonders of bubble memory. However, while bubble memory was often touted by IBM as a future technology, it eventually proved as the Achilles heel of the project, when the completed prototype was demonstrated to the executive board and concerns were raised regarding the reliability of the unproven technology.
Tom Hardy, as quoted in "Delete": "The Aquarius would have blown the socks off of everybody. I felt, and a lot of people felt this was going to be a big deal and make IBM believe in this whole business." And, regarding the demise by bubble memory: "Because it was relatively new for these kind of applications and whereas the team had gotten this thing to work, the company just didn't want to take a chance and push it. IBM should have been able to do it. If they would have pushed that technology and put all the resources behind it like they'd done with other things in the past, a lot of folks thought that it would have been successful and would have just blown the whole thing wide open."
While the IBM of the mid-to-late 1970s was evidently not the company to do this (and I can see the risks that might have been posed by this to the reputation of what was still the core product), it's one of the more fascinating what-if scenarios.
[Edit] The IBM Aquarius prototype can be seen here, side-by-side to the earlier "Yellow Bird" (which seems to have been more of a design study than a full-fledged project): https://saccade.com/blog/2019/04/delete-a-design-history-of-.../