Not so different from Apple in the late 90s. And it kept struggling to find its stride until the iPhone. Let's have some context.<p>1993, Apple Newton<p>1994, IBM Simon<p>1996, PalmPilot/PalmOS<p>1996, Apple Pippin game console<p>1998, iMac<p>1998-2000, tons of MP3 players<p>2000, Microsoft Pocket PC/Windows CE<p>2001, Microsoft's tablet PCs<p>2001, iPod<p>2001, OS X<p>2002, Pocket PC smartphones<p>2002, BlackBerry<p>(I included a few flops to show that this wasn't a God-given destiny but an iterative search process...)<p>So as of 2004:<p>* PDAs are an established market but mostly limited to business. The functionality will only take off in smartphones, which are really just PDA-phones<p>* iPod has gobbled up the pre-existing MP3 player market in a way that prefigures iPhone, with a decent device and very good marketing<p>* Smartphones are just getting taken up in 2004, as an outgrowth of the PDA market. It'll be 5 years before iPhone hits a pre-existing smartphone market with a decent device, very good marketing and "app store"<p>* Tablet PCs are bombing, largely because nobody understands or wants the form factor yet<p>Near future after 2004: transition to Intel 2005-2007ish, MacBook Pro and MacBook 2006, iPhone 2007, Android 2007, MacBook Air 2008, iPad 2010.<p>and consider the contribution of economic downturns/booms to the timing of products which did well
"WWDC 2004
Register early and save"<p>Ah, for the days when you didn't have to register in the first minute to have a chance of getting a ticket.
You should take a look at this 15 year slideshow of Apple's homepage: <a href="http://thetechblock.com/15-years-apples-homepage/" rel="nofollow">http://thetechblock.com/15-years-apples-homepage/</a>
The change in technology and "coolness" is staggering. I remember buying the white 20GB iPod with the scroll wheel and being the coolest kid in high school. Looking at it now and it looks painfully outdated and ugly (IMO).
It's kind of interesting how that G5 ad on the front page has a testimonial about freeing you from the chains of Intel and MS. Apple was was probably right in the middle of getting 10.4 ready to run on Intel at this point
Great web design basically doesn't need to change over time. Apple has kept the same ideas: big hero image, top nav bar, a few secondary things, and that's it for a decade.
It's more shocking see how Samsung was 7 years ago ( <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070222044411/http://www.samsung.com/" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20070222044411/http://www.samsun...</a> ) and now ( <a href="http://www.samsung.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.samsung.com</a> ). Evolving from refrigerators to smartphones!
The navigation bar is the most interesting part I think:<p>- Store<p>- iPod + iTunes<p>- .Mac<p>- Quicktime<p>.Mac and Quicktime were actually two of the most prominently featured products on Apple.com. Wow. iPod and iTunes have stuck around but are now treated separately probably due to the variety of content available on iTunes (apps, books, movies, games).<p>I find it strange that Mac's aren't featured on the 2004 navigation bar. Instead it's OS X.
Seeing the 'Education' section makes me disappointed.<p>Apple's recent departure from the educational market really changed how school districts (like the one where I'm currently employed) made their purchasing decisions.<p>They used to offer deep discounts for K-12 and higher ed, even featuring it on their main page. Now they don't offer anything of the sort.
That lampshade imac was one of the coolest bits of hardware ever. I find it more interesting than the new "trashcan" model. I had a friend with a lampshade imac and I was very envious. It still seems more useful to me than the new all in one macs where you basically can't service anything. The lampshade was a good compromise.
The biggest thing that sticks out to me is the design of the tab buttons in the nav bar. I remember looking at Photoshop tutorials and using Macromedia Fireworks to create buttons that looked similar to this for phpBB styles. Yikes, I'm not old. But damn I'm old.