Hits and misses in the Apple repertoire

Hits and misses in Steve Jobs’ career (with year product was introduced):

HITS

Apple II (1977): The machine that launched Apple and the personal computer industry. Apple II computers came with a keyboard, monitor and two disk drives.

Macintosh (1984): With a revolutionary graphical interface and mouse, the Macintosh immediately stood out as easier to use than the command-based IBM personal computer. About 70,000 Macs sold in the first 100 days.

Photos: Steve Jobs | 1955-2011

iMac (1998): The iMac computer debuts in translucent plastic “bondi blue,� followed in 1999 by five candy colors — blueberry, strawberry, lime, tangerine and grape. About 2.7 million iMacs sold in the first two years.

iPod (2001): The portable player introduced the possibility of carrying an entire music collection in your pocket. Apple has sold more than 300 million iPods.

iPhone (2007): The revolutionary device merged phone, music player and computer into a stylish package. About 130 million have been sold.

iPad (2010): Despite skepticism about the market for a tablet-style device, iPad was a hit from the start, with 7 million sold in less than a year.

MISSES

Apple III (1980): Apple’s first attempt at a computer built for business cost as much as $7,800 and was rushed to market before many engineering issues were sorted out. It was abandoned a few years later.

Lisa (1983): The Lisa borrowed many of its features from an experimental project at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center, including the mouse, windows and menus. But at $10,000, no one could afford it.

NeXT (1988): Ousted by Apple, Jobs developed the NeXT computer, a sleek, powerful machine that academics adored but the public couldn’t afford. Still, it was the machine on which the World Wide Web was created.

Power Mac G4 Cube (2000): A visually stunning 8-inch machine, packaged in a translucent white case, it suffered from a rash of problems, including cracks in the casing and a tendency to turn off.

Timeline: The life and work of Steve Jobs

Scott J. Wilson