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Apple’s booms and busts: which way will the iPad go?

BUSTED: 1993 Newton MessagePad Steve Jobs’ absence from Apple didn’t stop Apple's then-CEO John Sculley from trying brave new ventures. Initially, the Newton MessagePad was an attempt at revolutionising mobile computing, using handwriting recognition. However it took the software up to 2 months to adapt to the owner’s script – way beyond the patience span of the American consumer. Effectively it triggered the popularity of the PDA device and it was influential in the iPhone’s development. Discontinued in 1998 and way ahead of its time, we could say that the Newton was the iPad's great grandfather.

BOOMED: 1998 iMac Apple executives realized, after a few lackluster years, that firing their founder Steve Jobs was a mistake. He was rehired and a year later he announced the iMac, an all in one desktop computer that broke the standard beige box mould. Testimony to its huge success is the several models following it, as well as putting Apple back on track. What a nice way for Steve to say “I told you so”.

BUSTED: 2000 PowerMac G4 Cube Jonathan Ive’s innovative design attracted admiring eyes and the must-have-it die-hards, but critics panned it, saying that it was too expensive. Slow sales and a manufacturing issue that led to faint cracks in the clear plastic case led to its discontinuation. The Mac Mini was considered to be its better-value successor.

BOOMED: 2001 iPod When Sony introduced the Walkman it changed the way we listen to music forever. But the cassette tape was under threat with several digital formats looming and Sony hedged its bets with the Discman and Minidisc. When MP3 technology arrived, Sony dragged their heels on the piracy issue. Enter Apple, who filled the gap with a device featuring a clean uncomplicated interface and generous capacity. Coupled with iTunes, it was a design and software masterstroke. The rest is history.

BOOMED: 2001 Mac OS X While hardware compatibility woes continued to plague Microsoft Windows, Apple released the elegant, powerful and intuitive OS X. Superior software integration had many of the applications seamlessly coordinating with the web. Then there was Bootcamp, that allowed people to switch to Windows and back again easily (although it was fast becoming unclear why any of them would want to).

BUSTED: 2005 Motorola Rokr Wildly anticipated, the Apple phone was to follow a series of beautifully designed, functional and successful products. The Motorola Rokr arrived with little to suggest that Apple had anything to do with it, except the preloaded iTunes. Fair enough you say, what’s wrong with that? Well, compared to the massively capacious iPod, the Rokr could only transfer 100 songs at a time. Besides, what if customers weren’t rockers, what if they liked disco? Lesson learnt, Jobs thought, right after the Rokr fluffed its demo during the presentation. “We’ll do it ourselves!”

BOOMED: 2006 MacBook The well-received, mid-priced iBook laptop was replaced by the MacBook, featuring Intel processors. Some said this move away from the Power PC architechture was a mistake and predicted Apple’s demise as a computer manufacturer. Instead PC users took notice and began their mass migration to Mac. At the end of 2008, the mid-range model of the MacBook was the single best-selling laptop of any brand in the U.S.

BUSTED: 2006 iPod Hi-Fi A home for your iPod? What wasn’t to like? The high price perhaps (it was more expensive than other similar products). In fact, The Bose SoundDock might well have been the executioner of the iPod Hi-Fi, with better sound quality and flexibility (the Hi-Fi was incompatible with certain iPods and the iPhone, plus the limited function remote control). Too expensive for a boom-box, not good enough for the audiophiles.

BOOMED: 2007 iPhone There is very little to be said here that hasn’t already been said, with tech writers hyping this smartphone to the moon and back. With its slick interface and hundreds of thousands of third-party applications available, it is the yardstick by which all other high-end phones are judged. If we had a Rand for every time we read the words ‘…iPhone killer?’ we’d be in Acapulco sipping piña coladas.

BUSTED: 2008 MacBook Air Mr Jobs stood in front of a crowd of journalists with a manila envelope in his hand. Inside was the MacBook Air. At just over 1kg and as svelte as a catwalk model, it was stunningly beautiful. When it was fired up however, it was underpowered and underspecced at the premium asking price. It’s still selling, so we shouldn’t call it a failure. But it really serves no purpose other than for posing at coffee shops.