The Apple Year in Review

2009 was a great year for Apple. Apple experienced record growth in revenue and profit regardless of the most serious downturn in the economy in a generation. While not recession-proof, Apple has shown that it doesn’t hurt to have the hottest products on the planet even when the planet’s financial system is being stressed.

January – The last year of Apple’s presence at Macworld Expo in January. The show had an aura of finality to it and even though there is a Macworld again this year in February, there will be no Apple presence at the show. This year iLife ’09 was released with great new features that made it a compelling upgrade, especially for iPhoto. iWork ’09 was also released as well as a new 17-inch MacBook Pro.

February – Apple updated the entire range of Mac desktops with new iMacs, new Mac Pros and new Mac minis. Apple also updated the Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme with simultaneous Dual-Band WiFi.

March – Apple introduces the tiny 4GB iPod shuffle! Later in the month Apple introduced iPhone 3.0 software.

April – Apple introduces new Xserves with Intel Nehalem processors. They also announced the end of DRM for iTunes and introduced variable pricing for songs. Apple announced their financial results for the quarter with an astounding $1.21 billion in profit.

June – Apple introduces new MacBook Pros including the new 13-inch MacBook Pro. They also released the iPhone 3GS updated phone.

July – New versions of Final Cut Studio and Logic are released and Apple’s financial report indicates another $1.3 Billion in profit on spectacular Mac and iPhone sales. Steve Jobs is out sick and Tim Cook announced that “The Mac has now outgrown the market a staggering 18 of the last 19 quarters.”

August – Another update to the Time Capsules pushing the storage to a large 2TB! Snow Leopard is released at just $29 for the upgrade and the Mac Box set with Snow Leopard, iLife ’09 and iWork ’09 is released, too.

September – iPods! The iPod touch goes down in price and up in features and capacity, the iPod nano adds a video camera, the iPod shuffle adds colors and more choices in capacity and the iPod classic is moved from 120GB to 160GB without a price increase. To coincide, iTunes 9 is released.

October – Apple crushes the street again posting their most profitable quarter, ever, with a profit of $1.67 Billion. Apple sold more Macs and iPhones than any quarter. To complete the product offerings for 2009 Apple also released a slew of new products and updates.

iMacs were updated and the beautiful 27-inch wide screen iMac was introduced along with a new unibody white MacBook. Apple brought out the new Magic Mouse and even a new Apple remote. They updated the Mac mini again and introduced a server version of the Mac mini bundled with Snow Leopard server for only $999. Time Capsules were updated again, too.

November and December – not a time for product announcements but a time for sales and all signs point to another amazing holiday quarter for Apple with their common stock hovering around $200/share.