What vaulted Apple from its humble Silicon Valley origins to the absolute top of the business world? From its first desktop computer in 1976 to today’s category-crushing Apple Watch, the company is intensely focused on creating technology that will delight the masses.
That vision is best exemplified by Apple’s five most important products, which I’ve rounded up in this week’s edition of Kahney’s Korner. Some made the list for reasons that might surprise you.
Some of these Apple products are important for their game-changing technology. Others are crucial to Cupertino’s success because of the behind-the-scenes work that went into designing them.
Watch the video below for my take on these key Apple products and the critical roles they played in transforming a struggling computer company into a consumer electronics juggernaut.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
3 responses to “Kahney’s Korner: Apple’s 5 most important products of all time”
Amiga rulez man!
I’m still being blinded by the window. Just have someone shine a light at your face. It’ll bring the exposure down and I’ll stop harassing you about the stupid window.
The Ive/Jobs relationship was productive because Job’s checked Ive’s excesses. The original series of Ive designed products were brilliant, because of the ‘notes’ I’m sure Jobs was passing to Ive’s dept.
The current crop of Ive designs are a bit too far. They elevate design above function. And the user experience suffers. EG: the iMac, Mac Mini and Mac pro present a clean, uncluttered fascia unbroken by any functional elements. Power buttons, data, audio and video connections are hidden out of view.
This is lovely for a kiosk type system, but for a general use computer, or a workstation in a production environ this is a handicap. It is tedious and annoying to fumble around behind the computer to plug in an SD card, USB cable or TB cable.
And when your Mac on that rare occasion freezes up and requires a hard reboot. Your already elevated temper (It’s supposed to just work!) will be escalated by the confoundingly placed power button.
I love me some Mac, and I appreciate Ive’s initiative to reduce the Skeumorphism of UI elements. But c’mon man. People USE these things, not just look at them.