Apple at 50: my most memorable product announcements

Apple turns 50 today, so I thought I'd take some time to think back on some of the most memorable Apple product announcements. I'm relying entirely on my own memory, so forgive me if I get some small details wrong.

Original iPhone

We have to start with the original iPhone announcement. It's the sort of thing people will still be watching decades from now; an absolute masterclass in presenting new tech in a way that is exciting and approachable. I was in awe at the time and I'd never seen anything like it. The scope of what it could do was so far beyond what my little flip phone could do that it was genuinely hard to fathom.

Multitouch in particular blew my mind. You have to understand that in 2007, very few of the computing devices people used had touchscreens at all, and the ones that did tended to require a stylus. The idea that not only was your finger going to be a precise instrument for all interactions with this device (including typing on the keyboard), but that you could have multiple fingers detected at the same time and you could build gestures like pinch to zoom around that…it sounds quaint today, but that really was incredible at the time.

On the more mundane but also pretty damn impressive side, I still think about when he loaded The New York Times website, which isn't something we'd think twice about today, but again, literally was not possible on the phones the vast majority of us were using in 2007. You gotta remember, most people watching this keynote were doing so with a flip phone.

Original iPad

The other big hitter has to be the original iPad, which was demoed differently than basically any other product they've ever done, with Steve Jobs on a comfy chair with an over-the-shoulder camera showing him using what is effectively a large iPhone. The extra screen real estate really made it a compelling device for a lot of people. And then there was also one of the few price reveals I can remember. The rumors leading up to the event were that it would cost $999, so when they dropped that $499 price point at the end, it was amazing.

MacBook Air and iPod Nano

I can't neglect to mention the original MacBook Air being pulled out of a manila envelope. It's just an iconic moment. Similarly, Steve Jobs revealed the iPod nano by pulling it out of the coin pocket in his jeans. Again, iconic.

WiFi

I forget the specific model, but whatever the first laptop they shipped with WiFi had a great demo. Phil Schiller connected wirelessly to a router, jumped off a ladder onto a mat, and showed he never lost his connection. Not enough Apple executives perform live stunts during keynotes these days.

AirPower

I also can't help but think of AirPower, which promised to combat the problem that existed with wireless chargers, which is if you didn't align your device correctly on the pad, you might not get the charge you expected. The AirPower solution suggested that the entire pad should be coiled and you could charge multiple devices on the same pad at the same time. Place up to 3 devices anywhere on this mat and they'll all charge perfectly. Obviously, that never shipped, and the better and more effective solution turned out to be magnets, so that you only have one coil, but you hit it every time.

iPhone X

I remember the iPhone X announcement specifically, the part where they talked about how they managed to not have a chin on the bottom of the device like most other phones had at the time, and they did it by curving the OLED screen back on itself. It's such a minor detail, but that visual stuck with me.

Original Apple Watch

I don't know if I remember any specific part of the Apple Watch announcement, but I do remember my feeling of absolute relief that Apple was actually doing it and my delight that it seemed like they were doing it really well. I was wearing a Pebble as I watched this one, and I'm still wearing an Apple Watch today.

The Intel and Apple silicon transitions

I also think about the events where Apple announced their transition from PowerPC to Intel, and then a decade and a half later, Intel to Apple silicon. I think these announcements are just quintessential Apple to me, because from the moment until those events happened, Apple would proudly state how fast and battery efficient their computers were,. Then at the announcement they'd say, "Oh my god, it's been so bad, now we have a solution." And for what it's worth, in both cases it was exactly the right decision.

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger

The final one I'll mention right now is the announcement of Mac OS 10.4 Tiger, which is one of the all-time great macOS updates in my opinion, specifically because of Spotlight. You have to appreciate that at the time searching your computer sucked. There were some app launchers similar to what we have today, (although far smaller in scope), and Spotlight was a good app launcher, but it also let you search your entire file system effectively instantly. Before this, the way you would do this is you would search in the Finder, or years previous you would have loaded something like Sherlock, and type a query and wait…and wait…and wait. Genuinely, sometimes searches would take over a minute to scan your whole hard drive.

There are more that I could certainly call out, but these are the ones that were front of mind today.