So what's up with apple?

A note from the author:

Iconic Rainbow symbol for apple 1977-1995

I figure doing a segment on Apple could be helpful for some people. Plus, in blogging 101 they say you should write what you know, and apple is something I know a lot about. So lets see how it goes. I hope y'all like it.
P.S. I know this may seem trivial or unnecessary because who DOESN'T know about Apple but I figure it would be best to just do introductory article to make absolutely sure everyone is on the same page. 

Apple - a multi-billion dollar company that somehow has been able to capture the hearts of souls of thousands. How does it do it? Why does it do it? And are there products really that good? Well, I will try to answer all of these questions and then some within this article and hopefully in articles to come.


A Brief History of Apple
You see, Apple started effectively on April 1st, 1977 with co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak with the introduction of the Apple I, An "OK" machine at the time of its creation. Yet things didn't really start until the introduction of the Apple II, the computer that began the idea that computers should be available to the people (and was successful at it). In 1985 internal disputes led to Steve Jobs being ousted from Apple. A period of rocky sales and not so great management until Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1996 with a new philosophy in hand. His philosophy would reform Apple into the company we see today. The philosophy was a focus on simple, aesthetically pleasing design and a new focus on quality. This would soon spawn a road of successful products. The Apple products which would soon follow include the original iMac, Mac OS X, iPod, a revitalized Mac product line, iPhone, and now the iPad.



A Look at Apple's Main Product Lines
The iPod, this amazing little music player has revolutionized the mp3 player and continues to dominate the market. I mean seriously, what's its competition, the Zune? Currently, Steve has decided to keep about to have four models of iPods for different types of consumers. The iPod shuffle for the less fortunate, the iPod Nano, for a mid range consumer, to fit between the shuffle and the touch (The most current Nano has touch technology but only by dropping certain features like a camera an video playback.), the iPod Touch the "Tour de Force" of iPods. The philosophy of this product is to be everything like iPhone without a phone, and is typically marketed towards the teenage population. The iPod Classic is the fourth iPod model and is for that one true music lover we all know that has around 30,000 songs. I would discourage buying the classic for I have a feelings the classic will be dropped in favor of higher capacity iPod touches.

The iPhone. Lets just get this out of the way before I begin, I LOVE the iPhone. Apple has done something that Nokia would kill to have been able to do: show up on the smart phone scene and completely revolutionize the product. Introduced in 2007, the iPhone was the smartphone of all smartphones. With its multi-touch format, vibrant app environment, and a powerful operating system to boot. In the past three years the iPhone has been an ever increasing force in the smartphone market and has spawned powerful competitors such as Google's Android.

Mac. It started with computers and it makes sense that the Mac line would (in my opinion) be the cornerstone of Apple, with four models to complement the Mac name. The Macbook being the first in the line, and like the shuffle is the budget Mac. Although, when further researched, is almost a confusing marketing pitch. The MacBook Air the super light-weight, stylish side of the Mac, which starts at the same price as the supposedly "budget" Mac. I put that in air quotes because the MacBook beats the Air in specs in almost every aspect but its simply not as sexy looking as the Air. The MacBook will probably be discontinued or updated at a lower price sometime in the next year. It will probably make sense as time goes on. Now, for the creme of the crop, the MacBook Pro, with its powerful processor, graphics, and uni-body design is a sleek powerful choice for anyone interested in buying a laptop.

The iPad, the newest edition to the Apple fraternity, is a tablet with a similar layout to that of an iPod touch or iPhone. This is credited with creating the tablet market and plenty of competitors. Most notably being the Samsung galaxy tab, Blackberry PlayBook, and the Cisco Cius. Although some critic the iPad for being a bloated iPad touch without a camera, it is much more than that. It is a powerful device that allows you to do thing that you would not, or probably should not do on the much smaller screen of the iPhone and iPod touch.

Apple TV: Apple TV is a...you know what, who cares about Apple TV?

Good Stuff or Just Over Hyped?
The short answer is a little bit of both. Apple employee's smart marketing schemes help to provide a score of devoted fans or fan boys (I am one of them), yet at the same time Apple has almost a fanatical obsession with aesthetics and quality. Although some say lacking in features, all of the Apple products are undeniably strong pieces of technology that will hold its ground on whatever field Apple decides to go into for years to come.

- hgani