iPad, iPhone 4, MacBook Air, Mobility Focus Marked Apple’s 2010

by Nicholas Kolakowski

Following months of speculation, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad during a high-profile Jan. 27 presentation in San Francisco.

Within weeks of its April release, the iPad had proven a hit with consumers. In the wake of that success, competing manufacturers announced they would produce their own tablets, many running Google Android.

Apple encouraged developers to build apps for the iPad in the same way they had done so for the iPhone and iPod Touch. By doing so, Apple likely hoped to establish the iPad as the dominant device in the nascent tablet market.

Long lines appeared around Apple stores on June 24, when the company released the iPhone 4. Although the device proved a sales hit, Apple wrestled with some controversy over the antenna.

Soon after the iPhone 4s release, a subset of customers reported a loss of signal when their bare hand covered the lower-left corner of the devices exterior antenna rim. Eventually, Apple issued free rubber bumpers to cover the rim and fix the issue.??í

Throughout 2010, Apple faced increasing competition not only from the growing line of Google Android smartphones and tablets, but also Google TV.

In a bid to blunt Google Androids competition and broaden its mobile devices appeal to everyone from gamers to businesspeople, Apple released iOS 4.1 and iOS 4.2, with features such as wireless printing and a multiplayer-centric Game Center.

Facebook refused to build a way for its users to port their contacts onto Ping, Apples social-networking offering centered on music. Within months of Pings September unveiling, though, Apple had managed to connect Ping with Twitter.??í??í??í

Apple TV, the companys set-top device for streaming movies and television, seems destined to compete head-to-head with Google TV.

Hinting at Apples continued drive toward mobility, Jobs in October introduced two new MacBook Air models—one with an 11-inch screen, the other a 13-incher-with solid-state drives. “We asked ourselves, what would happen if a MacBook and an iPad hooked up?” he joked during the Oct. 20 unveiling event.