2010: It has been an Apple Year

2010 is undoubtedly an Apple year. 

iPad. In April of this year, Apple launched it iPad Tablet. A tablet is by no means a new innovation, tablets and tablet PC's having been around for years. Apple just placed their own spin on it and created the consumer tablet, and in one fell swoop changed the landscape of mobile computing for years. The iPad is the biggest innovation in portable computers since the netbook in 2007. And the way it is looking, it may be bigger than that. To date 100,000 million netbooks have been sold since the Asus Eee PC 2G of three years ago. Tablet sales should exceed that by a fair margin. By the time the rest of the industry gets their tablets up and running, the iPad 2 should be waiting in the wings.

Apple tablets are surprisingly reasonably priced. No top tier manufacturer has been able to offer a substantially better value for money product.

iPhone 4. The iPhone has always been a much desired product since its launch over three years ago. It was not the best smartphone available, but it was an Apple. Today, the iPhone 4 is still arguably not the best smartphone available. As a pure phone, concededly it is not the best. Overall, some phones have larger screens, have a more powerful multitasking OS, a better camera, better storage options and so on. On the other hand, the iPhone 4 has features which the other phones cannot match like the highest resolution on a mobile phone, the fastest processor, the biggest application support...

Basically, the iPhone 4 is the best smartphone on the market or at least arguably the best.

Macbook Air. The MacBook Air has been around for three years now. Apple improved the MacBook Air in October 2010 in two ways. First, the current Macbook Air's are the thinnest, lightest and fastest Macbook Air's ever built (which is to be expected). Second, the current Macbook Air's are the cheapest Apple has ever built. The entry level 13.3" Macbook Air is priced at 2/3rds the cost of the 2007 MBA. The release of 11.6" Macbook Air, bring the MBA down to new lows in price - Php51,990. 

This was a banner year for Apple. While Apple still makes premium products, there does appear to be a trend to expand its market by lowering its price premium. The company previously known for selling iPods, and personal computers on the side, is looking better than it has been in over a decade. When it comes to building the best ultra-mobile personal computers, Apple is now the undisputed number 1.