Apple 50th Anniversary: Top 10 Apple gadgets that revolutionised tech

Company's first logo was designed by Apple's third co-founder, Ronald Wayne. It was a hand-drawn, pen-and-ink illustration of Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree, with a single glowing apple dangling above his head.

Though Apple Computer Co. (now Apple Inc.) was officially incorporated on January 3, 1977, in Cupertino, California, three co-founders Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne and Steve Jobs actually started their start-up journey at the latter's car garage on April 1, 1976.

Did you know that for the first three decades of its journey, Apple made only 'Mac' branded computers? With a fast, ever-evolving sector like technology, it faced stiff competition. To get things back in the order, Steve Jobs recruited John Sculley, the former CEO of PepsiCo, to serve as Apple's CEO in 1984. Within a year, they had a fallout; in a shocking turn of events, Jobs was shunted out rather unceremoniously in 1985.

With no level-headed leader to make the course correction, Apple, a little over a decade without Steve Jobs, came very near to bankruptcy. Miraculously, good sense prevailed on Apple's board of directors, which brought back Steve Jobs in 1997. To everyone's surprise, Jobs struck a deal with Bill Gates, and Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple.

The announcement was made during the Macworld Boston event, where Bill Gates dialled in via satellite and streamed on the giant screen.

Since then, there is no looking back for Apple, as it grew big thanks to the innovative music player iPod and the biggest game changer, the iPhone in 2007. Also, Apple Watches and AirPods, Apple has redefined the respective segments. In late 2025, Apple market capitalisation value breached four trillion dollar.

As it completes its 50th anniversary, we will list some of the iconic gadgets of Apple that redefined the consumer electronics sector for good.

Apple I, II:

Apple II.

In the mid-1970s Steve Wozniak was working as engineer at Hewlett Packard and as a hobby during weekend, did a side project on developing his own computer. He designed a PC with a single circuitboard and showcased the prototype at the Homebrew Computer Club. His pal Steve Jobs saw a commercial potential in it, and there Apple was born.

Apple I (1976) was available in limited units and was more of a collectable for tech enthusiasts. Now, for obvious reasons, it has more value.

Interesting point to note is that it features the company's first logo. It was designed by Apple's third co-founder, Ronald Wayne. It was a hand-drawn, pen-and-ink illustration of Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree, with a single glowing apple dangling above his head.

Later, Steve Jobs hired professional artist Rob Janoff to come up with a better one. He drew the iconic biten Apple and continues to be seen on all of its product to this day.

At first it featured rainbow colours on the fruit, but over time it has evolved from being flashy colours to minimalistic matte finish on its devices.

That said, Apple II (1977) was the first major super hit product for the company. It had a good traction in the home market in the US. Unlike the PCs from HP and IBM, which were made for corporations, the Apple II was popular among regular users, even in schools and small business enterprises.

Macintosh 128K (1984)

Macintosh 128K (1984)

This was a breakthrough PC that revolutionised the personal computer segment with a built-in display monitor, a keyboard and a mouse. Thanks to an innovative graphical user interface, it replaced the lame text-based input commands to visual-based interaction. This made the Macintosh 128K more appealing to non-tech-savvy people and made operating a computer simple and fun.

PowerBook (1991):

PowerBook 100 series (1991)

This was an improvised version of the Macintosh Portable, a first-of-its-kind battery-operated laptop-like PC from Apple. With the PowerBook series, Apple was able to capture major market share of the portable PC segment. It was released in three versions-- PowerBook 170, 140 and 100 series.

iMac G3 (1998)

iMac G3 (1998)

iMac was an instant hit among consumers. The 80s and 90s kids, who are now in their 40s and 30s, will feel nostalgic about the colourful PC. It had all the attributes, which Steve Jobs emphasised while building a product. It was eye-catching and had a user-friendly interface. Jobs, as noted earlier, started this second stint at Apple in 1997 and was betting big on the iMac, and it did well. Though Jony Ive joined Apple in 1992, the iMac G3 was his first product under his leadership in the design team. It had a visually pleasing teardrop design with a cathode ray tube display monitor. It came with translucent, brightly coloured shells. This partnership of Steve Jobs and Jony Ive went on to create several more iconic products for Apple.

iPod (2001)

The original iPod (1st Gen) was launched on October 23, 2001.

The start of 2000 was still dominated by the bulky Walkman and Music CD players, but with the launch of the tiny iPod, it revolutionised not just its device category, but also the music entertainment industry.

The compact iPod, which can slip into the pants' pocket, has the capacity to store 1000 songs. It also gave birth to the iTunes store, which made people pay for the songs. And, this ensured music artists get paid handsomely for each song they create.

iPhone (2007)

iPhone 1st  Gen launched in 2007.

Who can forget the iconic product announcement from Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007? He started with, " We have three revolutionary products to announce. Widescreen iPod with touch control, a revolutionary mobile phone and a breakthrough internet communicator. The crowd went loud with roaring noise. Jobs repeated them again and again, telling the crowd, are you getting it? Then revealed that they are not three separate devices, but one device. And, we're calling it the 'iPhone'. It was one of the first of its kind to feature an all-display phone with a touch sensor, which can be operated by finger tap gestures. Also, it featured a camera too. True to his words, the iPhone really redefined the smartphone, which, back then, most phones featured a small display with rigid small keypads and limited features.

Like iTunes for iPod, Apple introduced App Store, which invited developers to create an ecosystem of limitless applications for iPhone.

The iPhone revolutionised the mobile phone industry and gave the death blow to giants such as BlackBerry, Nokia and Motorola. The latter two still alive, but yet to fully recover.

MacBook Air (2008)

Steve Jobs showcasing MacBook Air (1st Gen).

Like the iPhone, Steve Jobs ' presentation of MacBook Air is considered one of the iconic product reveals to date. He began talking about the most compact and portable. And dropped a hint that the product he is about to reveal is so thin, it can even fit in a manila office envelope. Then, he walked across the platform and stood at the podium to pick up a yellow envelope and just like that, took out an ultra-thin (4mm at the ends) MacBook Air. It was not an over-hyped PC; it delivered good performance and received good traction among consumers worldwide, particularly among college students and regular customers for use at home.

Even today, the latest MacBook Air M4 continues to be one of the slimmest laptops in the industry. It weighs 1.24kg. And, it delivers super-fast performance and can offer close to 20 hours of battery life under normal usage, much longer than Windows-based rival brands.

iPad (2010)

iPad 1st Gen.

Though Apple's iPad and Android tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab) made their debut in the same year, the iPad continue to be the gold standard for the tablet industry. Though Samsung's tablets and Microsoft Surface series have gotten close to delivering performance on par with iPad, the latter excels in battery life and value-added applications. Much like Xerox has become a generic term for the photocopy, iPad is a generic term for tablets in the global market.

Apple Watch (2015)

Apple Watch Series 11 displayed at Apple Hebbal Store.

Though the initial versions received moderate traction, by the year 2017, Apple Watches became the number one watch brand, dethroning Swiss giants such as Rolex and others globally. Apple Watches continue to be the most popular smart wearable for one simple reason: they come with the most advanced health tracking features, and they have saved thousands of lives with timely health alerts, and also emergency SOS features to get medical aid in the fastest possible time. Last year, with the release of Watch Ultra 3, Apple introduced satellite connectivity, which comes in handy for getting emergency help in remote regions without any cellular signal coverage.

AirPods (2016)

Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Gen).

Like the iPhone and Watches, the AirPods disrupted the earphones industry. It set a new benchmark for 'True Wireless Stereo' earbuds. The top-end AirPods Pro series is the gold standard for Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) in earphones.

Honourable Mentions

Apple M silicon (2020)

The new 5nm class M1 chipset.

Since the beginning, Apple has always tried to have maximum control over the hardware and software, so that it can deliver the best user experience to the customer. Depending on the third-party suppliers like mobile processors, battery, and display panel, they may sometimes bring limitations, as we see in Android phones. So, Apple had its own A-series silicon for iPhone, but lacked one for its computers. It all changed with the M series chipset. With this, it has managed to outpower most rival computer silicon in terms of performance, faster response and most importantly, deliver the longest battery life for a computer in the industry.

Vision Pro (2024)

Immersive content for Vision Pro available on Apple TV.

Though Apple's Augmented Reality headgear has received moderate traction in the market, Vision Pro is a technological masterpiece. It boasts of innovative visionOS backed by top -of-the-line hardware such as ultra-high-resolution micro-OLED displays (23 million pixels) and advanced eye/hand tracking capabilities. It has the potential to give stiff competition to expensive home theatre systems at home. Reports are coming that Apple is working on affordable smart AI glasses and also a watered-down version of the Vision Pro. We can expect more credible information later this year.

MacBook Neo

Apple MacBook Neo comes with mechanical Magic Keyboard.

Ahead of the 50th anniversary, Apple launched a slew of new Mac computers, including the MacBook Neo, a first-of-its-kind low-cost computer from the company in the first week of March 2026.

Be it phones, watches, or computers, Apple has predominantly avoided budget segments. But, with MacBook Neo, the Cupertino-based company has spooked computer companies, which make budget Windows PCs.

Earlier this month, Asus CEO S.Y. Hsu, during the earnings call, said he was shocked by the MacBook Neo launch and urged his partners, Microsoft, Intel, and AMD, to take the threat very seriously.

“In the past, Apple’s pricing situation has always been high, so for them to release a very budget-friendly product, this is obviously a shock to the entire industry,” said S.Y Hsu.

MacBook Neo comes in vibrant colour options similar to Apple's iPhone 5C. But, unlike the latter, which came with a plastic-based enclosure, the Neo series laptop features a sturdy aluminium casing.

It sports a 13-inch LED-backlit Liquid Retina display (2408x1506p) with IPS technology, 500 nits peak brightness, supports one billion colours, sRGB colour and pixel density of 219 ppi (pixels per inch). It also features the trademark Magic Keyboard, found in premium MacBook models. It promises to offer a precise and comfortable typing experience. And, it also comes with the large Multi-Touch trackpad and supports tap, pinch, swipe and click gestures.

Under the hood, MacBook Neo houses the Apple A18 Pro chipset, the same as the iPhone 16 Pro series. It features a 6‑core CPU with two performance cores and four efficiency cores. It also comes paired with a 5‑core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine. It supports 60GB/s memory bandwidth and Hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which promises an immersive gaming experience.

It features a built-in 36.5‑watt‑hour lithium‑ion battery, and with a full charge, it can deliver 16 hours of battery life.

The new MacBook Neo comes in two configurations-- 8GB RAM + 256GB and 8GB RAM + 512GB storage-- for Rs 69,900 and Rs 79,900, respectively.

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