In the decade we have been publishing TechSpot, we 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’s ubiquity of Apple products in all forms of computing devices.
Coming from near bankrupcy during the 90’s, it took several years to turn 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 way towards the next big thing.
During the past 10 years Apple has systematically attacked and conquered from several fronts. Here’s a brief recount of those winning products, and where it applies, the industry incumbents that for one reason or another failed to innovate or at least failed to beat Apple at breaking products to the masses first.
iPod

After nearly going bankrupt, Apple showed the first signs of a rejuvenated spirit with the release of the translucent iMac in 1998. It was bold and showed their willingness to leave old technology behind by ditching the floppy. It was the first product to carry the “i” branding and set the company on a course it follows to this very day. But it was the iPod, three years later, the hit product that turned the company around.
The iPod was a combination of clever marketing and the company’s relentless pursuit of getting the formula right — on the hardware, ergonomics, and ultimately on the distribution of music. It wasn’t the first digital music player by any means, but it was the first 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. Adding Windows support and USB was key, then two years later getting the music industry on board with iTunes. No one would have considered the $0.99 per song model at the time, but with record labels struggling to combat piracy, Apple saw an opportunity and made it happen.
By the time serious competition noticed (Sony, in particular) Apple had the market pretty much locked in. The iPod worked really well so there was little reason to take a gamble on an unproven gadget and leave your iTunes purchases behind.
iTunes Music Store

Apple was among 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 price of $.99 per song. Thousands of independent labels were added soon after.
As it turns out, people were willing to pay. A year after its launch, the iTunes Store had broken past the milestone of 100 million songs sold. Even though users could still 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’s ability to maintain a balance 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 we may see the iPhone as a natural progression of the iPod, but at the time of its release the iPhone was so different than anything anyone else was doing at the time (Nokia, Motorola, RIM, Microsoft, you name it…).
Based on a pared down version of OS X, the iPhone was the first 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 as an iPod, a phone, and a web browser in one.
Apple didn’t got all things straight on day one, in fact, some key elements of the iPhone formula didn’t come to exist 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 better subsidies, brought the upfront cost to $200. As before, Apple was able to operate like a well-oiled machine iterating on the same basic device with improved design, processor, camera, and connectivity year after year.
Developers soon realized there was big potential on this infant platform and when the App Store launched about a year later, it was game over for everyone else. Apple was years ahead of the game and it took that long for others to catch up.
Android has taken the market 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 world, failed to see and react to the changing times along with Nokia, Microsoft, Palm, Sony, Motorola all facing an uphill battle since.
Full Story: Apple’s Near-Impeccable 10-Year Run: Where They Succeeded and Others Were Too Lazy to Innovate – TechSpot.