From 2011 to 2021 a lot has happened at Apple. That 2011 was the succession of Tim Cook to Steve Jobs as CEO of the company, since the mythical co-founder died at the end of that year due to his long illness. The company continued to grow and launch well-known products such as the iPhone or Mac, but it also opened other product lines that are still preserved today. What have been those best products of the Tim Cook era? We will take a tour of those who have had a greater significance.
From iPhone 4s to iPhone 12 Pro Max
Since 2007 this is the company’s flagship product, but the first of the last decade and the first of the ‘Cook Era’ was none other than the now mythical iPhone 4s . It was presented just a few days before the death of Jobs and although the company had previously launched an iPhone with the last name ‘s’, the truth is that there is a legend around the most romantic who affirm that that ‘4s’ were the acronyms in English for “By Steave” (FOuR STEVE).
Along the way there have been phones with more and less success, such as the controversial iPhone 5c with its colorful range of colors in plastic materials. But to stay with one, we would choose the iPhone X as the phone that marked a new era in the company’s smartphones, leaving behind the bulky front bezels and giving way to the much loved and hated ‘notch’. It was presented in 2017 and improved versions have been succeeding it, but the truth is that there are many who still endure this device without noticing that the passage of time has made them feel very bad.
AirPods and HomePod: Apple said hello to the sound
Apple did not invent Bluetooth headphones, but we can say that for many other brands it was the company that opened the ban on a sector that was still somewhat asleep. The design of the original AirPods of 2016 and that remains in those of 2019, was controversial to say the least. Aesthetically they are the same as the classic wired EarPods, but with Bluetooth technology and a charging case that allows them to always be stored while also recharging their battery.
Another new line of business that the company opened was that of smart speakers. Siri found its home in the HomePod , a product that still amazes with its excellent sound quality despite the assistant already lagging behind its competitors in the market. To this was added last year the variant of the HomePod mini and a few months ago we learned about Apple’s idea of abandoning the large size of the speaker to focus on that small one (although there are already indications that they will launch other types of high-end smart speakers ).
Health on the wrist thanks to the Apple Watch
The first smart watches stood out for the possibility of reading notifications from the phone on the wrist and even being able to answer them or make calls. However, Apple went further by offering a watch in 2015 that, in addition to that, gave you a complete operating system to have what matters most always at hand, adding health functions that in the Apple Watch Series 6 are already tremendously evolved. We cannot say that it replaces a medical instrument, but it offers interesting results for prevention with measurement of pulsations, ECG or blood oxygen level. In addition to its fall detector present for several generations. The stigma of having too short an autonomy still weighs on it, but the weight of being a slow watch as it happened in the first two generations has already taken off.
The Apple Silicon are already present and future
In the field of Mac we have seen excellent equipment, with interesting redesigns in some of them or new accessories such as the TouchBar in the MacBook Pro. But if there is something to highlight in this decade, it is what is happening in recent months with the Apple Silicon . The first ARM processors for Mac that have been designed by themselves are already on the market with the Mac mini, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and iMac. The leap in performance and energy efficiency compared to Intel has been impressive, not to mention new possibilities such as being able to better integrate iOS apps with macOS.
iPads became computers
In 2011 the iPad was only a year old, but surely many minds at Apple already saw a promising future. The ‘Pro’ range arrived in 2015 and 6 years later they already have identical components to the Mac thanks to the M1 chip. To this is added an iPadOS that is increasingly separating from iOS since its arrival in 2019 and that more closely resembles the desktop experience. All this with functions that a Mac today does not have, such as being able to continue enjoying a touch panel and even use a stylus such as the Apple Pencil.
New services that already provide benefits
One of the banners of Apple today is its services. Apple Music, Apple TV +, Apple Arcade, Apple News +, Apple Fitness +, iCloud or the Apple Card are currently services that the company offers even in packages like those of Apple One. The most recent ones to be added were those of Fitness + in 2020, although the The vast majority of them were released in 2019. Music is especially noteworthy as it is one of the longest-lived and is reaching ever greater market shares.
BONUS: The AirTags so you don’t lose anything
If we are looking for the newest and most recent product line that Apple has launched we only have to go back to a week ago when the AirTags were officially launched. This Apple accessory is similar in functionality to others that already existed on the market, with the objective of easily locating objects such as keys through the Search app. It stands out above the rest for taking advantage of the immense network of brand devices that exist in the world and that can serve as a beacon if the user’s phone is not the closest to the AirTag.
Of all these, which one do you prefer? What is for you the best Apple product of the decade and of the Tim Cook era?