Sunday 15 December 2024
Select a region
10 products that made Apple the world leader in technology that we know today

10 products that made Apple the world leader in technology that we know today

8 months ago

10 products that made Apple the world leader in technology that we know today

8 months ago


Apple’s 40-year history has been littered with products that have either created or re-defined different areas of the technology market. Here, we take a look at those products.

Apple GIF – Find & Share on GIPHY

1. Apple I (1976)

The Apple 1, seen in 2013
(Ben Margot/AP/PA)

The company’s first ever product was little more than a circuit board, but Steve Jobs insisted on Steve Wozniak’s neat placing of all components on the board for a better aesthetic, a trait he continued to push throughout his career.

2. Apple II (1977)

Black-and-white picture of Steve Jobs holding the keyboard of the Apple II in 1984
(AP/PA)

Now complete with a keyboard and a screen, the Apple II was arguably the first example of a modern personal computer, with everything housed in one place.

3. Apple Lisa (1983)

80S GIF – Find & Share on GIPHY

The first Apple computer to offer a graphical user interface (GUI) comprising of windows and icons that would become the universal standard for every device that followed.

4. Macintosh (1984)

The 1984 Apple Macintosh
(AP/PA)

The computer designed to bring the technology to the masses for the first time. It came with a keyboard and a mouse and began a range that is still in existence today.

5. Newton MessagePad (1993)

Apple Newton MessagePad 2000
(Richard Drew/AP/PA)

The product that still stands as the best example of getting it wrong, the Newton was Apple’s first attempt at a personal digital assistant. The signature handwriting recognition software was infamously unreliable and the Newton was discontinued in 1998.

6. iMac (1998)

Apple's Jony Ive with the colourful iMacs and Jon Rubinstein
(Susan Ragan/AP/PA)

A watershed moment because it announced Jobs’s return to Apple, as well as the beginning of Jony Ive’s design influence, seen in the left of the picture above. The bold colours were new for the computer industry, and more than a third of first-year sales went to people buying their first computer, introducing many to the internet for the first time.

7. iPod (2001)

iPods
(Paul Sakuma/AP/PA)

Having redefined personal computing, Apple switched to music with the iPod, taking on the WalkMan and other portable music players by launching the iPod, which could hold up to 1,000 songs, substantially more than rival devices.

8. iPhone (2007)

Shoppers look at the first iPhones on display in an Apple store window
(Elise Amendola/AP/PA)

The device that helped make Apple the most valuable company in the world combined a phone, the internet and a music player. It essentially created the modern smartphone market and consumers loved it – more than 700 million have now been sold.

9. iPad (2010)

Apple CEO Steve Jobs using the iPad as part of his presentation on the device
(Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP/PA)

The tablet market already existed when the iPad was announced, but it was the iPad that made it relevant to everyday consumers. Several hundred million sales later and though the market is shrinking, Apple still leads it.

10. Apple Watch (2015)

Apple Watch GIF – Find & Share on GIPHY

Smartwatches are still to catch on the way smartphones and tablets have, but the Apple Watch looks the most likely to make that happen. A fashion-conscious approach has seen it go on sale in Paris boutiques and even grace the cover of Vogue in China.


« Return to Tech

You have landed on the Bailiwick Express website, however it appears you are based in . Would you like to stay on the site, or visit the site?