The tech world was shocked this morning when Steve Jobs announced his resignation as Apple chief executive. And although chief operating officer Tim Cook has been hailed as the company’s most logical successor, the decision still marks the end of an era.
Steve Jobs has taken Apple from a company teetering on the edge of bankruptcy to the most valuable company in the world. It has dominated the personal music player, desktop computer and smartphone markets under his watch, and has created marketplaces out of thin air.
Here are five of Jobs’ biggest product successes during his tenure:
It’s not hard to evaluate the influence of the Macintosh. It was the first computer to feature a mouse and a graphic interface marketed to the general public. Since then that model has been emulated by the biggest PC makers, and is how we have come to know the desktop computer.
The success of the Macintosh, however, can be found in its ability to continue changing with the times while incorporating the Apple design ethos. In 1998 when the multicolour “jelly bean” models were made available, it marked the beginning of Apple’s reign under Steve Jobs, returned after being outed in the 1980s.
The “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” commercials have also encapsulated Apple’s position in this whole business. It is the superior, easy alternative. Not for geeks, but for the everyman, the average consumer.
It is this marketing position that has enabled Apple to challenge Microsoft as the biggest tech company in the world – an achievement unthinkable one decade ago.
It’s the biggest online music retailer in the world. It holds nearly 30% of the American music market, and controls 70% of the digital distribution market.
It’s easy to take the iTunes Store for granted now. When a new album, television show or movie is released, it’s assumed that you’ll be able to grab a good deal on iTunes and sync your media to the prospective Apple device required to play it. But it was only a decade ago that a digital marketplace like this didn’t even exist.
The creation of the iPod was a step forward in personal computing, but the iTunes store highlights Jobs’ ability to see beyond the hardware and focus on how markets integrated with those products can create a steady stream of cash.
Back in the early 2000s, music companies were facing the same problems television and film production companies are now. Pirates were downloading music on the internet for free.
The solution was the same then as it is now – provide them with a cheap, legal source of music that is more convenient than relying on spyware-ridden sharing programs.
Jobs was able to broker contracts with major music studios, and eventually, film and television studios, to offer their content online. It was the first major digital distribution venue to actually become a success.
The benefits were huge. Don’t want to download a full album? Then simply pick the individual tracks you want. Combined with podcasts, audiobooks, video and iTunes U, this marketplace has grown to become the norm for downloaded music.
The iPod was a revolution, but without the iTunes Store it ceases to have power. Since its initial launch in April 2003, 10 billion songs have been downloaded, not to mention over 200 million episodes of television.
The iTunes Store not only helped create digital product distribution, it set the model for future players.
The success of the App Store is similar to that of the iTunes market – Apple created not only a place where users could customise their phone with software just like a personal PC – but an entire marketplace where individuals now had a shot at breaking into the big time.
The iTunes Store brought music online. But the App Store essentially created a market out of thin air, allowing not only large development studios but also individuals in their own homes to create apps that had a chance of selling millions of copies, making some lucky programmers wealthy within just a few months of launch.
The App Store is an even playing field. Even though the competition between app makers has increased, it’s still possible for a few talented programmers to make a living creating apps that rival those made by entertainment companies and corporations.
Also consider the influence on the rest of the market. The App Store has prompted similar markets to pop up, built by rival tech giants – Microsoft, Research In Motion, Google, etc.
The App Store has changed the public perception of what a phone should be. No longer just a device that can access the internet, but a pocket computer. A device that is a supplement to a laptop and desktop machine, one that can handle basic business tasks and run programs just as sophisticated as those on a normal computer.
The App Store not only provided a chance for developers to make it big, but forever changed how consumers will view the phone.
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It’s important to remember that when the iPod first launched in 2001, it wasn’t the first MP3 player on the market. Nor was it even well received. Many reviewers said it had fewer features than similar models produced by rivals, and the sound quality was inferior too.
Those reviews were silenced when the iPod starting selling out everywhere within months. But they also crystallise Apple’s mentality when it comes to products – design, not features, are the key.
The iPod was not the best MP3 player on the market. It was not even the cheapest. But it is sleek, it is easy to use and it looks great. That is the approach that has made Apple the biggest tech success of the past decade – simple, stylish products will trump a vast array of features.
Although the iPod is becoming less relevant now as more users listen on their phones, (and the iPod Classic is rumoured to be scrapped this year), it nevertheless represents how Apple is able to take an existing product range and make it successful by stripping it back to basics.
The smartphone market has only really taken off in the past few years, and rather suddenly too. All of a sudden “dumb” phones with keypads have been replaced with small, rectangular touchscreens with no buttons whatsoever.
And it’s no coincidence they all look the same – they’re all copying the iPhone.
Before 2007 there were few smartphones available on the market, and fewer still that were actually marketed to the general public. The iPhone changed that perception, and showed that a phone can be just as useful and as stylish as Apple’s other products.
Merely a year later, rival manufacturers started stripping back their smartphone designs, using touchscreens and minimal physical buttons. Stripped-back designs are now the norm, and the fewer buttons, the better.
The iPhone was not the first smartphone, but its influence cannot be avoided. Apple’s emphasis on design can now be felt throughout the industry as its rivals – including Google – emulate the iPhone’s success.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
