In the decade we accept been publishing TechSpot, nosotros have watched Apple resurge from the joke that G3 and G4 machines represented, to the Apple 'Mac vs. PC' debate -- during a time the company had better luck selling MP3 players than computers -- to today'southward ubiquity of Apple products in all forms of computing devices.

Coming from near bankrupcy during the 90's, it took several years to plough Apple around, but perhaps most important, it took several innovations and breakthrough products to rebuild their image as a tech pioneer. Today, Apple gets much deserved respect from its competitors, and within the industry, there's unsaid expectation that they are the ones paving the manner towards the side by side big thing.

During the past 10 years Apple has systematically attacked and conquered from several fronts. Hither's a brief recount of those winning products, and where it applies, the manufacture incumbents that for one reason or another failed to innovate or at least failed to beat Apple at breaking products to the masses beginning.

iPod

After most going bankrupt, Apple showed the commencement signs of a rejuvenated spirit with the release of the translucent iMac in 1998. It was assuming and showed their willingness to leave former technology behind by ditching the floppy. Information technology was the outset product to carry the "i" branding and set the visitor on a course information technology follows to this very day. But it was the iPod, three years subsequently, the hit product that turned the visitor effectually.

The iPod was a combination of clever marketing and the visitor's relentless pursuit of getting the formula right -- on the hardware, ergonomics, and ultimately on the distribution of music. Information technology wasn't the first digital music player by any means, but it was the offset to appeal to a mass audience.

The original iPod offered up to 10GB of storage in a package that fit into your pocket and synced with Macs only. Surely, Apple didn't get everything right off the bat, in fact the first-gen iPod had as many flaws as it had advantages, but then heavy iteration came to be. Calculation Windows back up and USB was key, then two years later getting the music manufacture on board with iTunes. No ane would take considered the $0.99 per song model at the time, but with record labels struggling to gainsay piracy, Apple tree saw an opportunity and made it happen.

By the time serious competition noticed (Sony, in particular) Apple had the market place pretty much locked in. The iPod worked really well so at that place was little reason to take a gamble on an unproven gadget and leave your iTunes purchases behind.

iTunes Music Shop

Apple was amid the few players able to recognize early on that digital music was to shape new market dynamics. The store launched with five major record labels -- EMI, Universal, Warner, Sony Music Entertainment, and BMG -- with a set up price of $.99 per song. Thousands of independent labels were added presently after.

As information technology turns out, people were willing to pay. A yr after its launch, the iTunes Store had cleaved past the milestone of 100 1000000 songs sold. Even though users could nevertheless load ripped and downloaded songs to their iPods, iTunes made the process of buying and moving music to your portable player simpler.

The iTunes Store flourished thanks to a huge iPod user base and Apple tree's ability to maintain a residual between copyright holders and users. Today, all songs are sold without any DRM, and Apple is the largest music vendor in the world with over 15 billion songs sold.

iPhone

Today nosotros may meet the iPhone every bit a natural progression of the iPod, but at the time of its release the iPhone was then different than anything anyone else was doing at the time (Nokia, Motorola, RIM, Microsoft, yous name it...).

Based on a pared down version of OS Ten, the iPhone was the offset smartphone that came close to mimic the browsing experience of a traditional PC. It rode on the success of the company's previous hit - touted equally an iPod, a phone, and a spider web browser in one.

Apple didn't got all things direct on day 1, in fact, some primal elements of the iPhone formula didn't come to be until a year later, but the company was quick to react where it could. For example, the phone first launched at a very steep $500 on contract. Eventually amend subsidies, brought the upfront cost to $200. Every bit before, Apple was able to operate similar a well-oiled automobile iterating on the aforementioned basic device with improved blueprint, processor, camera, and connectivity twelvemonth after year.

Developers before long realized there was large potential on this infant platform and when the App Store launched about a twelvemonth later, information technology was game over for everyone else. Apple was years ahead of the game and information technology took that long for others to catch up.

Android has taken the marketplace share crown since, which speaks highly of Google's execution, but the same can't be said of many other incumbents. RIM, once the darling of the smartphone earth, failed to see and react to the changing times along with Nokia, Microsoft, Palm, Sony, Motorola all facing an uphill battle since.

App Store

The Apple App Shop deserves a mention of its own, but not because of the millions it rakes in revenue each year, simply because even with its often-criticized approval process, the store became a magnet for developers looking to attain the huge iPhone install base. It's also been mighty effective at locking in users into Apple's ecosystem.

The closed nature of the iPhone and its accompanying shop have received some deserved criticism, but ultimately has been a small price to pay. Ultimately it's allowed Apple to control the user experience across devices and those same strict guidelines likewise allowed the iPad to build an app base of operations fast plenty while Android has had to battle with Bone segmentation, different screen sizes and aspect ratios.

Even with Android getting better every year and Microsoft emerging as a contender, long fourth dimension iPhone users will call back twice before jumping ship to another platform. Whether it's for sheer convenience or ease of use, it was a brilliant evolution that immune the iPhone to become a software platform beyond the phone.

iPad

The iPad arrived as the industry was focused in churning out uninspiring inexpensive laptops. The netbook itself is not to arraign, simply manufacturers who believed the race was only about toll and never nearly building a quality product for less (today'south ultrabooks could be seen as a market correction).

Apple dismissed the netbook trend fifty-fifty though some clamored their entry. As everyone ate into their own margins competing in a race to the lesser, Apple released something completely new.

Certain, 'tablets' weren't new, but this was zip like consumer tablets of yesteryear. Naysayers claimed it was just a big iPod, and with some reason, nosotros were but starting to figure out what a tablet similar the iPad could be good for. Primal aspects that made the iPad a success: a surprisingly depression $500 entry toll, a long battery life, and a well-behaved software platform inherited from the iPhone.

Apple's timing played a factor, besides. With all the excitement surrounding mobile app development, before long iPads started to receive software back up that until this mean solar day remains unmatched by competitors. Not to mention, the year or ii information technology took everyone else to catch upwardly.

MacBook Air, Retina Displays

As Apple tree faced a transition on what was of import to them (Macs vs. iDevices), they were nonetheless able to introduce with laptops. Here I dare say, shame to all PC manufacturers for not coming upwards with some of the innovations that are differentiating Macs above Windows machines, or at least, why they are letting Apple come upwardly first with these trend-setting ideas to market.

With the MacBook Air the company took optical drives and hard drives out of the equation, used custom components, and reduced the number of ports in favor of a slim course factor dissimilar anything available at the fourth dimension. The Air did price more than than twice the typical netbook, only it was also significantly cheaper than "premium" ultrathin laptops like Sony's Vaio offerings. The first-gen Air suffered on the functioning front, just that was corrected eventually as newer, less ability hungry CPUs were released. Needless to say, the ultrabook movement is the result of the MacBook Air'southward success.

Most recently, MacBook Retinas are also paving the way for high DPI displays everywhere. On the mobile world it'due south already happening, while Windows PCs accept yet to follow even though it's merely a matter of time. Yet, the question here is not about the hardware, but software as of today Windows offers very poor support for DPI scaling.

Other notable mentions include: Unibody designs, minimizing build and keyboard flex and large trackpads that work flawlessly. Apple pioneered some and perfected others but it's articulate they've left their mark.

Retail Stores

Beyond controlling software and hardware, Apple tree took a bold step into retail dorsum in 2001. This was an effort to lessen its dependence on big box computer retailers. The visitor's meticulous attention to detail successfully permeated the architectural blueprint of its stores and the overall auction experience, helping bring in hordes buyers and onlookers. Today at that place are close to 400 retail locations worldwide and Apple tree Stores are the most profitable per square foot, according to Forbes.

That's no small-scale feat because retailers similar Best Purchase and Circuit City with years of experience have either gone out of business organisation or been forced to downsize during the same period, equally online giants eat their tiffin. Apple Stores have considerably changed the landscape for consumer electronics stores and influenced other tech companies to follow suit, including Microsoft.