Apple leads PC World's 50 Best Tech Products of All Time

Everybody likes lists and rankings; there's just something that fascinates people about them, and they're always good for an argument or, as the case may be, selling magazines. Squarely in this latter camp is PC World's list of the Best 50 Tech Products of All Time, which editor Harry McCracken writes in to tell us features seven Apple products, more than any other singe company. These are:

#2 - Apple II (1977)
#6 - iPod (2001)
#14 - Mac Plus (1986)
#21 - iTunes 4 (2003)
#30 - OS X (2001)
#34 - Original Airport Base Station (1999)
#41 - Hypercard (1987)

One thing that jumps out of this list to me is that only one of them, Hypercard, came out of Cupertino during the period that Jobs was gone from Apple (well maybe the Mac Plus, too). In any case, it clearly shows how much Apple has been on a roll since Jobs' return. I also think that at least one more product should be there: the original Powerbook 100, which more or less established the notebook computer form factor we have to this day. So let the debates begin, dear TUAW readers, what did the PC World editors screw up?

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Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130207-page,1-c,technology…

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Everybody likes lists and rankings; there's just something that fascinates people about them, and they're always good for an argument or,...

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Adam

Hey guys, I wouldn't sweat the list too much. It was so poorly researched they called the 3dfx Voodoo3 and the Sony Mavica some of the best/most important tech products of all time. I mean, seriously? Voodoo3 brought about the end for 3dfx it was so poor in comparison to nVidia's TNT2 and the Sony Mavica is just another digital camera with a cryptic model number.

The entire list is flawed, so I wouldn't puff my chest too much about how well Apple did on it.

April 05 2007 at 12:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Yes, the floppy disc was a revolution when compared to paper tape or cards.

April 03 2007 at 3:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

onesam

where's the Newton? OK, so it didn't have the immediate impact that it might have, but it's been a big influence on myriad technologies since. Clearly the ubiquitous PDA is it's direct descendent, but mobile phones, laptops, and a whole stack of other things learnt from the Newton.

I'm surprised that the MacPlus made it over the original Macintosh. That was the revolution.

And the floppy disc?

April 03 2007 at 6:25 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

aron t

One commenter at the article's page mentioned the optical mouse. I agree - that should have definitely been on there! And come on, Netscap Navigator being "better" than the Apple II - the first real PERSONAL computer... That list needs help!

April 02 2007 at 4:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Joe

Adam, in the PC world, Windows 95 was revolutionary. Sure, the idea of a desktop with the system appearing as an icon in the top corner was not unique (having been in MacOS and Amiga's Workbench for years before), but it was a huge leap from the MS-DOS/Windows 3.11 systems that came before. You have to remember what the computing world was like back then to appreciate it.

April 02 2007 at 4:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Adam

They screwed up putting Windows 95 above OSX, there's no comparison. OSX was revolutionary, Windows was a mere bad copy.

April 02 2007 at 4:33 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply