Apple at 50: Three products that changed how we live - and three that really didn't

Apple at 50: Three products that changed how we live - and three that really didn't20 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleLaura CressTechnology reporterGettyFew companies have managed to define how people use technology in their everyday lives as resoundingly as Apple.The company, which celebrated its 50th birthday this week, was started by two Steves in a San Franciscan garage. It has had some truly standout successes - and some notable flops. These days, nearly one out of every three people on the planet owns an Apple product - a success that Emma Wall, chief investment strategist for financial services company Hargreaves Lansdown, said had as much to do with the company's marketing as it did its hardware."They sold a dream," she said, and they added something that was "quite new at the time - the idea that branding was as important as the product line".Apple's string of hits has arguably slowed since the death of its visionary co-founder Steve Jobs, as the company focuses more on refining its existing technology.Ken Segall, Jobs's creative director for 12 years, told the BBC that Apple's current chief executive, Tim Cook, had done an "amazing job" at changing with the times and keeping the company profitable.But he added that many Apple purists still do not feel as excited by the company's current phase because "they remember that older Apple was Steve Jobs".As the company pushes past its half-century, we asked technology analysts and experts to take a look at some of the significant ways the company changed the tech world, and some of the ways it arguably missed the mark.iPod (hit) GettyThe iPod was released in 2001 and paved the way for legal digital music downloading to hit the mainstreamWhile by no means the first portable digital music player when it was released in 2001, the iPod is one of "Apple's most iconic products" argued Craig Pickerell of The Apple Geek. No...