Apple makes news every year, and ever since Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997, the news has mostly been good. But any big company will make a few missteps, and Apple is no exception. No company can escape the occasional misstep, but with Apple, the stumbles get the same kind of "generous" coverage that the successes do. Apple is hardly a shy, retiring company that prefers to hide from the spotlight -- even people who've never owned an Apple product can probably name several, whether because of the clever ads, the generous news coverage, or just word of mouth. Here's the 10 Apple moments that made big news this year.
The iPad Creates New Computing Category
Rumors that Apple would soon come out with a tablet computer were everywhere the beginning of 2010, and the rumors were proven accurate in April, when Apple released the iPad. Many doubted whether Apple could succeed where several other computer manufacturers had not, and others dismissed the product as "just" a big iPhone. It turned out that a big iPhone was just fine with more than 4 million people.
Apple is in the news . . . a lot. And that news is usually good -- in fact, amid all the glitzy product news of this year, the Cupertino company reached a milestone that would have seemed unimaginable not so long ago. Of course, as with any major corporation, all news is not good news. Apple had its share of embarrassments and outright mistakes amid the eye-catching successes. Read on for the top 10 stories involving everyone's favorite fruit-based PC and consumer electronics company from the past year.
Apple is in the news . . . a lot. And that news is usually good -- in fact, amid all the glitzy product news of this year, the Cupertino company reached a milestone that would have seemed unimaginable not so long ago. Of course, as with any major corporation, all news is not good news. Apple had its share of embarrassments and outright mistakes amid the eye-catching successes. Read on for the top 10 stories involving everyone's favorite fruit-based PC and consumer electronics company from the past year.
The Antennagate Imbroglio
When the iPhone 4 was introduced in June, buyers soon started complaining about reception problems. As it turned out, they had a point: it was easy to hold the phone in such a way that your hand bridged the two antennas that encircle the case. "Antennagate" generated a lot of attention and even threats of lawsuits, all of which led to a special press conference in which Steve Jobs argued that most smartphones had similar problems and that very few users had complained. Nevertheless, Apple offered all customers a free "bumper" case to keep their hands off the antennas.
Flash Banned
Early this year, Adobe was working on an enhancement to the Flash Professional component of its forthcoming CS5 suite that would enable Flash developers to package their applications as iOS apps. Not so fast, said Apple, which was already in a war of words with Adobe over the company's decision not to support Flash content on the iPad. In April, Apple changed its iOS developer's license to limit the types of code that developers could use to write an App -- a limitation that excluded the cross-compiling approach that was to be in Flash.
Flash Ban Revoked
Well, that didn't last long. After Apple banned Flash development tools from use for acceptable iPhone Apps, regulators started looking into whether such a move would violate antitrust laws. Nothing really came of that investigation, but four months later, Apple removed the restrictive language from its developer's license. The company announced that "we are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code."
Mac App Store Shifts Software Sales Paradigm
The Mac App store, announced in November and expected to debut early next year, will establish a new approach to selling PC apps. Modeled on the iPhone App Store, Mac owners will be able browse apps online and buy and install them with one click. Besides making it easier to buy applications, the program may also make it cheaper, if only by breaking some software suites into separate purchases. Critics, though, wonder if the need to get Apple's approval will have a chilling effect on the otherwise thriving independent Mac development market.
Stealth Data Center In North Carolina
We know Apple is spending $1 billion to build a 500,000-square-foot data center in Maiden, North Carolina. What we don't know is why. Recent reports suggest that the center is almost ready to open, but Apple hasn't announced what it's for. Speculation includes an expansion of Apple's MobileMe data syncing and online storage service, possibly including a free limited-functionality version for all Mac owners; or the long-anticipated cloud version of iTunes with music subscription and streaming.
Thinner, Lighter... Cheaper MacBook Air
When the MacBook Air was first introduced in 2008, it set the bar for thin and light portable computers. But at $1,800 for a 13-inch laptop with a smallish hard disk, and a relatively slow processor, it was regarded as something of an executive toy. That changed in 2010, with the debut of an 11-inch model for $999. The Air still lacks an optical drive and has a slow processor, but the new solid-state hard drive makes up some for the speed issue -- and the limitations aren't as noticeable when the price is under a thousand bucks.
Apple Goes Social With Ping
With iTunes 10, Apple added social networking. The Ping service lets users create their own profiles to share their musical tastes and also follow their favorite artists. Ping is integrated into the iTunes store in an awkward way, and it's not clear how many people feel the need for yet another social network. But it's probably the first result of Apple's purchase of the music streaming and sharing service Lala, and it's easy to imagine Ping eventually giving people the ability to actually share songs, which might get them more interested.
Apple Unseats Microsoft As Most Valuable Tech Company
Remember the old body-building ad featuring the 97-pound weakling getting sand kicked in his face? That ad was actually titled "the insult that made a man out of Mac," and for years it seemed an apt metaphor for the relationship between the forever-about-to-fail Apple and powerhouse Microsoft. That's why it was shocking to learn in May that Apple had passed Microsoft in company valuation: Apple was valued at $222 billion, while Microsoft was stuck a little below a measly $220 billion. Oh, Apple, you are a real computer company after all.
Contractor Troubles In China
Apple got caught in a wave of bad publicity this year about poor working conditions at the Chinese factories that make its products. At the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, where some 300,000 people build computers for Dell and HP in addition to Apple, seven employees had committed suicide by May. Meanwhile, workers Taiwan's Wintek plant claimed that a chemical used in iPhone manufacture was poisoning them. The company also discovered that some contractors had used child labor. Apple vowed to continue inspections and to demand that its contract manufacturers abide by the company's standards.
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