Apple is a very small paragraph in the history of mankind, so far we agree. However, when talking about consumer electronics, it is inevitable to focus on the Cupertino company. The biggest and clearest example of its success are the dozens of companies that base their policy on systematically copying Apple in an attempt to reduce the cost of their products.
We don’t yet know what the future holds for the Vision Pro, but we’re taking you on a tour of Apple’s biggest hits (and flops) that have made history. Discover with us how many times Apple has literally turned the market upside down.
Apple I: a dream of Wozniak that Jobs realized
It is common to refer to Steve Jobs when talking about the success of Apple, however, we often forget to mention the mastermind of the birth of Apple, a young and irreverent engineer from Hewlett-Packard who decided to design the ‘Apple I, one of the first personal computers, and the first to combine a microprocessor with a connection for a keyboard and a monitor, an engineering process in which Steve Jobs had no part.
This masterpiece of artisanal computing has remained to this day as an example of entrepreneurship, so much so that In 2014, an Apple I was sold at auction for no less than $905,000.
And so in 1976, Apple was born, having sold over 200 units of the Apple I at a local store for a price of $666.66. Curiously, the net profit was $166.66 per unit, cementing the 1/3 profit margin theory that Apple kept at that time.
Later, In 1977, when the company was already founded, Apple launched its first mass-produced personal computer, positioning itself as one of the most important companies of the time and dethroning the big companies in the sector such as IBM or Hewlett-Packard. We talked, how could it be otherwise, of the Apple II.
From Macintosh to iMac
Due to strong internal Apple disagreements, Steve Jobs led the team behind the development and manufacturing of the Macintosh. In January 1984, through one of the best advertisements in living memory, Apple unveiled its Macintosh in the third quarter of Super Bowl XCII, no less.
According to Steve Jobs, the Macintosh was to be the ultimate personal computer, and it came to users with MacPaint and MacWrite, two applications that would facilitate the daily life of its users. A device that laid the foundation for a user-friendly user interface, but was not a real commercial success.
After coming and going and almost gone, Apple wanted to resurface like a Phoenix bird, the return of Steve Jobs to the company gave birth to the iMac G3, launched in 1998. Already in its time, it represented a paradigm shift, a farewell to floppy disks, clearly indicating to the market that it was CD time.
For the first time, a PC was pleasing to the eye and not a maze of angles and bland materials. It was offered in five different colors and its success was such that it was marketed until 2004.
iPod, the music market revolution
Apple wanted to diversify and opted for music. Steve Jobs’ second big premiere after returning to Apple was the presentation of one of the most relevant innovations found in the world of music. In this way, farewell to the links of physical formats (Walkman and Discman). Thus in 2001, Apple introduced a small hard drive capable of storing and playing music in .MP3 format.
It’s like that, the same company that wanted to universalize the CD had decided to kill it. Just as the iPod was launched, with a capacity of up to 10 GB, with a white case and a wheel of mechanical buttons with which we will interact with a new user interface.
In this way we could listen to our music without any other limit than the drums, modifying our playlists with different styles and musical groups. Its initial incompatibility with Windows, or its price of $400 were not a stumbling block, the launch of iTunes as a data management tool and the subsequent iTunes Store for purchasing single songs (not full CDs), They represented the beginning of the digitization of the industry.
iPhone and App Store
Yes, before 2007 there were smartphones, and yes, before 2008 there were app stores. However, the Cupertino company laid the groundwork for two products, hardware and software, that would change the history of the industry.
We’re not going to tell you anything about the iPhone, best-selling phone of all time. Curiously, the iPhone 6 accumulates more than 200 million units, making it the third best-selling phone in history, behind the Nokia 1100 and 1110.
The iOS App Store, as the cornerstone of the iPhone, has allowed developers big and small to market their capabilities, offering apps at affordable prices. In this film, everyone won, the developers for their income, Apple for the royalties and the users for their novelties.
For many years iOS apps were an example of careful development and excellence, being generally superior to the alternatives offered by their Android counterparts.
The iPad, the only real tablet
The discussion between iPhone or Android terminals is much quieter than before, however, it remains hot. Where there is no doubt is that tablet is practically synonymous with iPad.
Steve Jobs had been clear, after the success of the iPhone, people were going to demand the same thing but bigger, that’s how the iPad was born, that it was actually in development before someone thought of adding a phone modem to it, making it smaller, and calling it the iPhone.
The first version of the iPad was released in 2010, with wireless connectivity capabilities, weighing less than 650 grams and a 9-inch panel. Currently, the iPad has more than 40% market share, i.e. 50% of tablets sold worldwide are iPads.
Small Big Hits: Wearable Devices
Apple has fully entered a market in which others were already beginning to abandon, we are talking about wearables, and in this case the Apple Watch and the AirPods. After the launch of the two, TWS earphones and smartwaches have completely democratized, and it’s rare to see the iPhone user who doesn’t see an Apple Watch on their wrist.
To show an example, in 2014, barely 720,000 smartwatches were sold, when the Apple Watch was launched, sales reached 37 million, and In less than 2 years, the connected watch market has doubled to reach 80 million. Today, 5 out of 10 connected watches sold are from Apple (50%), the closest being Samsung with 9%.
Vision Pro, what’s to come
That’s how we got here, the launch of the Vision Pro, Apple’s virtual/mixed/augmented reality glasses, with which he intends to govern a market in which Sony with its PlayStation VR2 and Facebook with its Oculus have already failed. We are not going to talk more about this product, let time fill in the next paragraph.
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