10 MACWORLD SEPTEMBER 2020
MACUSER MOST INFLUENTIAL ERAS IN APPLE’S HISTORYmarks the start of the turnaround. The iPod
followed in 2001, and combined with the
launch of Apple’s retail stores, Apple
changed its brand, brought back the Mac,
and primed the pump for the launch of the
iPhone.
But there were failures and false starts,
too. Apple’s partnership with IBM in 2003
led to Apple announcing the Power Mac
G5 and Jobs promising a 3GHz processor
would be available within a year. IBM was
never able to deliver, and Apple ended up
having to jettison the entire PowerPC
alliance and run into the arms of Intel,
formerly Apple’s archenemy.
And in 2002, Jobs stood on stage,
mocked
Apple’s
previous
efforts to
sell server
hardware,
and
explained
how Apple
would
remain
committed
with the
new Xserve
server,
Xserve
RAID
storage
array, and Mac OS X Server software. It
was worth a shot, but it just didn’t work
out—and both Xserve and Mac OS X
Server slowly faded away as Apple found
better areas in which to focus.
And then there were Apple’s bumbling
attempts to add online services to its
portfolio during this period, from .Mac to
MobileMe. iCloud has evolved into a solid
service, but only after more than a decade
of belly flops.
Yes, there was magic in the early era of
Jobs’s return. But it was hardly an
effortless performance. In this era, Apple
was sweating—trying hard, and often, to
find places where it could push itselfApple’s Steve Jobs (left) and Intel’s Paul Otellini (right) talk about Apple’s
implementation of Intel processors in Macintosh computers.