Apple’s best product ever

Half a century on the market is an eternity in the technology industry. Apple, celebrating its 50th anniversary, is no longer just a manufacturer of computers or phones – it is the foundation of the modern digital ecosystem. To mark this impressive anniversary, the editorial team at The Verge took on a daunting task: creating a ranking of the 50 best products in the history of the Cupertino giant. The scale of community engagement exceeded expectations, generating over 1.6 million votes, shedding new light on how we perceive the legacy of Steve Jobs and his successors.

A ranking driven by millions of votes

The process of selecting the winners was not merely an editorial poll, but a massive opinion study of the global user community. David Pierce along with Nilay Patel, in a special episode of The Vergecast, analyzed the results, which stretch from position number 50 all the way to the very top. Interestingly, the list prepared by readers diverges in many points from the subjective feelings of the experts, who spent weeks refining their own lists.

The discussion surrounding the ranking exposed phenomena such as "recency bias" (the tendency to overvalue newer products) or specific prejudices, for example, towards Apple printers, which today seem like nothing more than an exotic memory from the past. However, an analysis of 50 years of operation shows that Apple is not just about successes, but also a long, bitter war over the App Store or complicated relationships with Foxconn, which shaped the production model of modern electronics.

From QuickTime to Apple Watch – the architecture of innovation

In the anniversary summaries, special attention is paid to products that changed the paradigm of using technology. QuickTime was cited as a foundation that forever changed how computers handle multimedia. Without it, today's video streaming might look completely different. Similarly rated is the MacBook Air – a product that redefined mobility standards in the computer industry, proving that performance can go hand in hand with an extremely slim chassis.

However, Apple's modern history is primarily the dominance of the Apple Watch. As Victoria Song notes, it was this watch that defined modern health tech, turning a gadget into a device that monitors vital signs. It is an evolution from a work tool (Macintosh) to a personal life assistant that is with us every second. In the context of the 50th anniversary, it is clear that Apple has stopped being a product company and has become an "experience" company, where hardware is merely a carrier for services.

The shadow of OpenAI and the shift toward business AI

While Apple's jubilee dominates discussions, the tech industry is currently preoccupied with another giant. OpenAI, according to the latest data, has reached a staggering funding round of $122 billion. The number of weekly ChatGPT users has hit 900 million, placing the service among the fastest-growing platforms in history. This context is crucial for Apple, which must find its place in a reality where AI is becoming the new operating system.

Editorial discussions also highlight controversies surrounding OpenAI's decisions, such as killing the Sora project or the acquisition of TBPN. While Apple celebrates its past, the AI market is undergoing a drastic shift toward business applications. Entering its second half-century, Apple faces the challenge of integrating these powerful language models into its closed, secure ecosystem, which may be its toughest task since Steve Jobs' return to the company.

The ecosystem in the face of market changes

Not everything in the tech world revolves around billion-dollar mergers. On the sidelines of major anniversaries, processes are unfolding that realistically impact the wallets of users and enthusiasts. Significant price increases for Raspberry Pi have been noted, hitting the hobbyist community, along with interesting hardware modifications, such as those presented by Snazzy Labs, allowing an old iMac to be converted into a modern Studio Display monitor. This is proof that Apple hardware, despite the passing years, still possesses immense utility value.

From an editorial perspective, Apple's 50th anniversary is a moment of reflection on the "best product in history." Is it the iPhone, which dominated everything, or perhaps the MacBook Air, which set the direction for laptops? Or maybe Apple's greatest achievement is the very mechanism of creating desire and loyalty that allowed the company to survive five decades in such a volatile industry? The analysis of 1.6 million votes suggests that for every user, the answer is different, which constitutes the strength of the brand.

A new era of services and the twilight of classic hardware

Looking at the list of the 50 best products, it is hard to escape the impression that the era of "pure hardware" is coming to an end. Apple is increasingly focusing on services and vertical integration, as seen in the success of the Apple Watch or the dominance of the iPhone as a command center for home and health. At the same time, the company must face new players like Anthropic, which is introducing restrictive subscription models for Claude (blocking free access via OpenClaw), signaling increasing fragmentation and monetization of the AI market.

My forecast for the coming years is clear: Apple will not win the race for the "best product" with another iteration of a phone or watch. The true winner of the next ranking – perhaps for the 60th anniversary – will be the product that most effectively hides AI technology under the cloak of an intuitive interface, which Apple has accustomed us to over the last half-century. The success of initiatives like Flipboard Surf, which combines decentralized social networks (Bluesky, Mastodon) with traditional RSS, shows that users long for the clarity that Apple can provide like no one else.