Top Products

Walter Mosberg of the Wall Street Journal wrote his last article for that publication today. He last article provided his view of the top 12 influential tech products. Five out of twelve of the products are from Apple (in chronological order):

Newton MessagePad (1993)

iPod (2001)

iPhone (2007)

MacBook Air (2008)

iPad (2010)

These products were mixed in with products like Windows 95, Google search, FaceBook and Twitter so it is a nice little historical summary of major tech milestones in the last few years.

Walter’s criteria for influential tech products were:

Products had to improve ease of use and add value for average consumers

Products that changed the course of digital history by influencing the products and services that followed, or by changing the way people lived and worked.

Steve Jobs achieved his objective of putting a dent in the universe (or at least our solar system). He doesn’t get credit for the Newton because he wasn’t in favour of it and eventually killed it. It was the one influential product that wasn’t a commercial success.