Starting the year with the most-anticipated gadget possibly ever, and closing it by landing the most influential rock band of all time on your music store? You could say 2010 was good to Apple.
Tablet PCs have been around for years, but none have even come close to the success (more than 7 million units in the first six months) of Apple's iPad. That's probably because it's not a full-blown PC--it's something else: an always-on media-consumption device that does some computer-like things. It may not be "magical and revolutionary" as Apple likes to (rather robotically) repeat, but it's certainly turned the conventional tech world wisdom about tablets-as-in-between-devices on its head. When Steve Jobs finally, officially introduced the iPad in January it capped more than a year of public speculation and obsession over the device.
But getting the Beatles on iTunes was arguably a more hard-won victory. Apple Inc. and Apple Corps, the Beatles' recording company, faced off in court over copyright issues for decades, and though they closed the books on the legal battle several years ago, the Fab Four's music remained safely out of all music download services' reach. That is, until noted Beatle lover Steve Jobs struck a deal with EMI. For now, Apple has an exclusive on The Beatles' catalog until sometime in 2011.
But it wasn't all sunshine and strawberry fields for Jobs and Co. this year. Despite the highs, there were some pretty bad missteps too. For another company, a misplaced prototype might be bemusedly shrugged at. When it belongs to Apple, and when said prototype is the hotly anticipated iPhone 4, it gets sold to a gadget blog, who then pastes photos of it online, publicly embarrasses the Apple engineer who misplaced his test unit iPhone at a Silicon Valley bar, and touches off a debate over checkbook journalism. Oh, and launches a police investigation, too, that is still ongoing because Apple considers the phone to have been stolen.
If any other gadget maker's flagship product displayed an annoying defect, most people who bought it would grumble to their friends and return it or move on. When it's the brand-new iPhone 4, it becomes yet another media circus. Only after mildly insulting customers who complained that when held a certain way the iPhone 4 lost cell reception, Jobs rebounded by holding a press conference to address so-called "Antennagate." He offered free cases for all iPhone 4 customers, and the cacophony surrounding the antenna subsided.
Strangely enough, the antenna hubbub didn't have any noticeable effect on sales. Apple still sold 3 million in the first three weeks it was available. And that's despite a promised white model of the phone that has still never materialized, even after three delays.
The year was also laden with lawsuits and threats of them--Apple suing and being sued, mostly over smartphone-related patents, and a few for malfunctioning hardware and software. There were also some non-legal spats, most notably the very public one Jobs started with longtime partner Adobe with his "Thoughts on Flash" bombshell that he posted online in April. He used it to make the case for why Flash shouldn't be included in mobile devices--too unstable, drains battery too quickly--and promote new Web video standard HTML5.
Shortly after, Apple also began disallowing certain tools, including the Flash compiler, to be used in iPhone app development. When iOS developer terms were changed to exclude non-independent mobile ad networks from advertising within apps--which included major networks like competitor Google's AdMob--the feds reportedly took notice. A few months later, Apple reversed course on both--allowing cross-compiler tools from Adobe and others, and other ad networks to iOS apps, most likely at the threat of a formal investigation by the SEC.
Still, the number of milestones outpaced the setbacks for Apple in 2010: the company released iOS 4 for the iPhone, finally bringing multitasking, and later iOS 4.2, which united the operating systems of both the iPhone and iPad; a mobile ad platform called iAd; a slimmed-down Apple TV; a brand new MacBook Air in two sizes; a new iLife software suite; an app store for Mac OS X; and Apple finally published official rules for iOS app developers. They also picked up a chip-design company called Intrinsity and an artificial intelligence company called Siri.
On the financial side of things, the company had another bangup year: Apple finally did what was once unthinkable--it passed Microsoft in overall market cap this summer, now worth $293 billion to Redmond's $229 billion. And several months later, Apple turned in its first $20 billion quarter.
Despite the monster year, 2011 looks to be even more interesting for the folks in Cupertino. The long-awaited Verizon iPhone is expected to land (after breathless speculation all year) in January; there will very likely be a new iPad and iPhone; and the next major version of its desktop OS, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, will arrive sometime next year. But despite building up a huge lead in the tablet market and grabbing the lion's share of attention in the smartphone world, the heat is on. Will Android phones pass the iPhone in unit sales? Will 7-inch tablets be "DOA," as Jobs snarkily predicted? Unless Apple comes out with an iCrystal Ball soon, we'll have to wait to see.
Tablet PCs have been around for years, but none have even come close to the success (more than 7 million units in the first six months) of Apple's iPad. That's probably because it's not a full-blown PC--it's something else: an always-on media-consumption device that does some computer-like things. It may not be "magical and revolutionary" as Apple likes to (rather robotically) repeat, but it's certainly turned the conventional tech world wisdom about tablets-as-in-between-devices on its head. When Steve Jobs finally, officially introduced the iPad in January it capped more than a year of public speculation and obsession over the device.
But getting the Beatles on iTunes was arguably a more hard-won victory. Apple Inc. and Apple Corps, the Beatles' recording company, faced off in court over copyright issues for decades, and though they closed the books on the legal battle several years ago, the Fab Four's music remained safely out of all music download services' reach. That is, until noted Beatle lover Steve Jobs struck a deal with EMI. For now, Apple has an exclusive on The Beatles' catalog until sometime in 2011.
But it wasn't all sunshine and strawberry fields for Jobs and Co. this year. Despite the highs, there were some pretty bad missteps too. For another company, a misplaced prototype might be bemusedly shrugged at. When it belongs to Apple, and when said prototype is the hotly anticipated iPhone 4, it gets sold to a gadget blog, who then pastes photos of it online, publicly embarrasses the Apple engineer who misplaced his test unit iPhone at a Silicon Valley bar, and touches off a debate over checkbook journalism. Oh, and launches a police investigation, too, that is still ongoing because Apple considers the phone to have been stolen.
If any other gadget maker's flagship product displayed an annoying defect, most people who bought it would grumble to their friends and return it or move on. When it's the brand-new iPhone 4, it becomes yet another media circus. Only after mildly insulting customers who complained that when held a certain way the iPhone 4 lost cell reception, Jobs rebounded by holding a press conference to address so-called "Antennagate." He offered free cases for all iPhone 4 customers, and the cacophony surrounding the antenna subsided.
Strangely enough, the antenna hubbub didn't have any noticeable effect on sales. Apple still sold 3 million in the first three weeks it was available. And that's despite a promised white model of the phone that has still never materialized, even after three delays.
The year was also laden with lawsuits and threats of them--Apple suing and being sued, mostly over smartphone-related patents, and a few for malfunctioning hardware and software. There were also some non-legal spats, most notably the very public one Jobs started with longtime partner Adobe with his "Thoughts on Flash" bombshell that he posted online in April. He used it to make the case for why Flash shouldn't be included in mobile devices--too unstable, drains battery too quickly--and promote new Web video standard HTML5.
Shortly after, Apple also began disallowing certain tools, including the Flash compiler, to be used in iPhone app development. When iOS developer terms were changed to exclude non-independent mobile ad networks from advertising within apps--which included major networks like competitor Google's AdMob--the feds reportedly took notice. A few months later, Apple reversed course on both--allowing cross-compiler tools from Adobe and others, and other ad networks to iOS apps, most likely at the threat of a formal investigation by the SEC.
Still, the number of milestones outpaced the setbacks for Apple in 2010: the company released iOS 4 for the iPhone, finally bringing multitasking, and later iOS 4.2, which united the operating systems of both the iPhone and iPad; a mobile ad platform called iAd; a slimmed-down Apple TV; a brand new MacBook Air in two sizes; a new iLife software suite; an app store for Mac OS X; and Apple finally published official rules for iOS app developers. They also picked up a chip-design company called Intrinsity and an artificial intelligence company called Siri.
On the financial side of things, the company had another bangup year: Apple finally did what was once unthinkable--it passed Microsoft in overall market cap this summer, now worth $293 billion to Redmond's $229 billion. And several months later, Apple turned in its first $20 billion quarter.
Despite the monster year, 2011 looks to be even more interesting for the folks in Cupertino. The long-awaited Verizon iPhone is expected to land (after breathless speculation all year) in January; there will very likely be a new iPad and iPhone; and the next major version of its desktop OS, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, will arrive sometime next year. But despite building up a huge lead in the tablet market and grabbing the lion's share of attention in the smartphone world, the heat is on. Will Android phones pass the iPhone in unit sales? Will 7-inch tablets be "DOA," as Jobs snarkily predicted? Unless Apple comes out with an iCrystal Ball soon, we'll have to wait to see.
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