Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Poll: What product has contributed most to Apple's turnaround?

What product has contributed most to Apple's turnaround?

  • iMac

    Votes: 30 19.0%

  • iPod

    Votes: 100 63.3%

  • iPhone

    Votes: 3 1.9%

  • Intel Macs

    Votes: 11 7.0%

  • Mac OS X

    Votes: 13 8.2%

  • Other...

    Votes: 1 0.6%
  • Total voters
    158
GimmeSlack12 said:
So without the iMac the iPod wouldn't have happened? I will say this is a debate over the iMac and iPod. I voted iMac was the biggest reason for the turnaround. But it is VERY debate-able.
Click to expand...

Good points.

I will say this: if the poll choice was simply between the iMac and the iPod, with no other options, I think it would be a much tighter race. The folks voting for Intel Macs and Mac OS X are probably more likely to be on the computer's side rather than the mp3 player's side in the iMac vs iPod debate (I know I am!).
 
gkarris said:
I put down "other" because it needed a vote... :p

(I was going to say, "Steve Jobs" - he is sort of Apple's "product")
Click to expand...

But Steve Jobs is a given. If he was on the Poll there wouldn't be a debate because hands down turned the company around. But How did he turn the company around? At what point/product did he turn the company around.

That's why Steve Jobs isn't included (which I totally agree with).
EDIT: I'd say Apple is Steve Jobs "product".
 
dbsmall said:
obviously the ipod they make double the cost to produce the product for each individual unit thats alot of profit if you think about it when it reaches the masses
Click to expand...

You'd think so, but most of Apple's revenue (more than 50%) comes from Mac sales.
 
GimmeSlack12 said:
But Steve Jobs is a given. If he was on the Poll there wouldn't be a debate because hands down turned the company around. But How did he turn the company around? At what point/product did he turn the company around.

That's why Steve Jobs isn't included (which I totally agree with).
Click to expand...

That was my reasoning, exactly.

He was the driving force behind all these options, so obviously he'd be the clear reason for Apple's turn around.

The question is, which of his actions contributed the most to it?
 
I had honestly forgotten that Apple existed before the iPod came out.

I think if someone had mentioned the name "Apple" I would have probably said... "oh yeah, those strange computers that teachers used because they got some sort of discount." Both of my parents were educators, and I remember them talking about Apples. The funny thing is that the roles are sort of reversed now. My Dad is probably going to replace his desktop, and he is curious about how my Mac experience is going to go (I'm still in the pre-purchase stage).
 
Unspeaked said:
When people say iPod halo effect, they're not talking about someone moving from a Shuffle to a Mini. They're talking about someone dipping their toes into the Apple waters with a music player or Phone but then diving in with a Mac - a Mac running OS X. If OS X wasn't what it is, the connection to the consumer would likely end at iPod...
Click to expand...


Well said.. There's been a lot of great points made for all opinions expressed in this thread.. This has been one of my favorite threads here in years- ultimately, I don't think there's really a clear winner (though the iPod is kicking butt in this poll) because everyone has laid out the reasons for their opinions so well that most of them have real merit to them..I suppose in the end, as someone said earlier, it's a combination of all of these things and then some other factors as well..

Either way it's a good thing that's taking place with Apple inc these days.. I know that I think it's kinda cool that this thing that we believed in, and supported, and stood behind for so many years- some were pretty bleak- is actually starting to resemble what we envisioned all that time ago.. I don't know about you guys, but it's not too often that I feel real strongly about something that the majority of the people just don't get and wind up with a chance that I may have actually been on to something.. Usually when that happens I'm the one who doesn't get it..lol.. It took longer than I could have ever imagined, but it's starting to become clear to the rest of the people that maybe we weren't out of our minds.. Maybe Apple really was something worth believing in after-all.. I'm kind of proud of the fact that I've been on this ride since the beginning- those bad times make these good times much more enjoyable, or at least not as tough to explain why we would ever actually use a mac-lol..Kind of what the Red Sox fans felt like when they finally managed to get a championship, in some weird way..Hey, things change so every once in awhile you've got to sit back for a second and smell the roses in the good times- never know how long they'll last.. Overall, these are pretty good times for Apple- not perfect, but pretty good..

Fun thread- but I still vote for OSX- but all choices were well represented..
 
without a doubt the ipod. it's tied to the mac line and it converted windows folks a reason to look at macs.

hands down. one of the products of the century if you look at it's complete range of impact.

cheers,
keebler
 
Keebler said:
without a doubt the ipod. it's tied to the mac line and it converted windows folks a reason to look at macs.

hands down. one of the products of the century if you look at it's complete range of impact.

cheers,
keebler
Click to expand...

So the 1 million iMacs that Apple sold within 6 months of its release in 1998 were just going to existing Apple users that had waited to upgrade?
 
Unspeaked said:
So the 1 million iMacs that Apple sold within 6 months of its release in 1998 were just going to existing Apple users that had waited to upgrade?
Click to expand...

I think this is an important distinction for this discussion.

The iMac made us "ooh" and "ahh" at Apple again, and it definitely brought in a lot of new "switchers" for that time period.
 
The iPod has definitely contributed to Apple's turn-around the most. If I'm right , there has been over 110 million iPods sold worldwide to date. When Apple released the coloured iMacs and iBooks, they started to become a lot more popular because their computers were completely 'different' to anything else.
 
doubleohseven said:
The iPod has definitely contributed to Apple's turn-around the most. If I'm right , there has been over 110 million iPods sold worldwide to date. When Apple released the coloured iMacs and iBooks, they started to become a lot more popular because their computers were completely 'different' to anything else.
Click to expand...

But the colored iMacs and iBooks pre-date the iPod...

By my estimation, Apple sold in the neighborhood of 6 million iMacs between the time it was introduced and the first iPod was released.

That's a great many units no matter how you look at it.
 
I seriously think the people who said "iPod" need to take a closer look at Apple's history.

I firmly believe that the iMac saved Apple, and turned it around. I also believe without, the iMac, there would be no iPod.

Of course, this is debatable due to the fact that the iPod is so popular now. People seem to think that because a product is succesful later in it's life, means it was significant during the beginning.


Here's my point.

As I recall, the iPod wasn't so successful during it's first year or two. Not until it hit 3G did it really become a hit product.

Compare that to the iMac, which was a firework in sales numbers from the very beginning. If it had been as slow as the iPod was, I think Apple would not exist today (or not in the way that we know them.)
 
I believe that it's the i products in general (with the iPod being the biggest contributor obviously.) The iMac release in 1998 set them up for the iPod release in 2001, then eventually Windows compatibility.

I (no pun intended) think, maybe, at first it was their idea to have such a great MP3 player that people would buy a Mac just to be able to use the iPod. But then they may have decided that was a slap in the face to the Mac, and that they should open it up to Windows users as well.

I don't know how many people have bought a Mac because of how much they love their iPod, but I'm sure it's a pretty decent number. iPod has been a great funnel for new Mac users, I'm almost sure of it.
 
I voted iMac (everyone remember Bondi). When Steve came back on the scene the iMac was one of the first products that came out. The company almost immediately turned around and made a profit.

I would say the iPod + iTunes + MacOSX sustained the turn around.

But Bondi was the start.
 
Spievy said:
IThe company almost immediately turned around and made a profit.
Click to expand...

Who said Apple wasn't making a profit before that?

IIRC, the "dark ages" were just a time of very low profit, not of an actual loss.
 
CalBoy said:
Who said Apple wasn't making a profit before that?

IIRC, the "dark ages" were just a time of very low profit, not of an actual loss.
Click to expand...

Okay let me re-phrase that.

Before iMac and Steve... Consecutive Quarterly Losses (downward spiral remember MS pouring money into Apple)

After ... Small at first then Rapid Quarterly PROFIT
 
Spievy said:
Okay let me re-phrase that.

Before iMac and Steve... Consecutive Quarterly Losses (downward spiral remember MS pouring money into Apple)

After ... Small at first then Rapid Quarterly PROFIT
Click to expand...

But is that even accurate?

According to the quarterly results for Apple's first quarter 1998 (ending Dec 1997), Apple made a profit . This was 8 months before the iMac was introduced.

Apple did have a rocky year in 1996, but by 1997, things had already turned around.

Just saying...
 
CalBoy said:
But is that even accurate?

According to the quarterly results for Apple's first quarter 1998 (ending Dec 1997), Apple made a profit . This was 8 months before the iMac was introduced.

Apple did have a rocky year in 1996, but by 1997, things had already turned around.

Just saying...
Click to expand...

Okay you have the data and I am going off a 10+ year memory, you win.

However do we both agree that Jobs + iMac really made the big turn around?

Don't forget the really cool (at the time) "Think Different" campaign.
 
Spievy said:
However do we both agree that Jobs + iMac really made the big turn around?

Don't forget the really cool (at the time) "Think Different" campaign.
Click to expand...

I do agree to that.

In my first response, I pointed out how the iMac marked a turning point in marketing philosophy, and we're seeing a similar advancement of that same philosophy with Intel Macs today. :)
 
Interestingly, no one has grabbed onto the SYSTEM.

Yeah, the SYSTEM, call it the APPLEBORG, you are part of something much more elegant, sophisticated than mere products or machinery.

Let me elaborate some here. You have the EXPERIENCE, from the stores with lots of toys to play with, and no salesperson cramming you to buy constantly. You have the web experience, the sleek minimalist site, with plenty of informational links, training, and places to go, visit and learn. You have the packaging, yeah, even the BOXES are sexy and make you feel good about the purchase.

Then you open it up, be it iPod, iMac, Apple TV, or whatever, and you LINK INTO the APPLEWORLD, your computer is now PART OF APPLEBORG, with dotMac for your storage, and photo's, the seamless updating, and the BEST part, unbeknowst before buying, is you DOWNLOAD all the applications for FREE to try, BEFORE YOU BUY! Yeah, BEFORE you buy!! THAT alone is so unbelievably unexpected.

Then you find out that your iPod, talks with iTunes, which works with iMac and movies, THEN you find out universities have FREE classes you can monitor and attend...

the EXPERIENCE is what counts, you are covered for YEARS with APPLECARE, you can talk to a GENIUS if you get stumped, and if you are a scaredycat, yoiu can sign up for ONE YEAR of hands on, personal one to one training on anything for the GIVEAWAY price of $99 for as many as 52 hour long personal training at a store.

No, it is NOT one thing, it is NOT this or that, it **IS** the community, the seamless integration of everything, from the store, to the shipping, to the training, to the software, and YES, even the hardware.

THAT is what is making the company grow,they do it all, they do it all with style, elan, class, and they actually seem to CARE that YOU the customer are ultimately satisfied.

Unlike the NIGHTMARE world of the PC world, viruses, sloppy or nonexistant support, programs that you have to buy to try, and NOTHING works with everything else,with each and every vendor pointing fingers at, and blaming someone else when their touted products either don't work, or you spend DAYS configuring this or that to get them to work together.
 
If we didn't have the ipod, we wouldnt have the iphone or probably even intel macs. iPods is what re-introduced apple to the market and helped them build market share.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back