50 years of Apple: the greatest products ever, ranked – here are numbers 40–31 in our countdown

We’re counting down 50 products from 50 years of Apple to celebrate the iconic company’s anniversary, with 10 products revealed each day over this weekend and into next week. The top 10 will be revealed on the day of the anniversary itself: 1 April. Check out all our 50 years of Apple features so far.

Here, we’re counting down from 40–31 – and it includes some of the most innovative stuff Apple has ever done, such as the Apple II and the iPhone’s App Store. Remember that this is the collective opinion of the Stuff team – everyone nominated their favourite Apple products and then this was collated into the results below…

50–41 | 40–31 | 30–21 | 20–11 | 10–1

40. App Store (2008)

People forget that buying apps on phones was once a horror show. The market was fragmented. Prices were high. Quality was a lottery. Then the App Store arrived. Whether Apple planned it all along or really did intend its original ‘sweet solution’ – web apps(!) – to be permanent, we’ll never know. But it gave developers instant access to millions of users – and a handful of apps made millions. Over time, the shine faded as Apple’s relationship with devs soured and its obsession with total control became clearer. But even that hasn’t stopped the App Store being packed with ambitious and diverse goodies.

39. Apple Watch Series 5 (2019)

The first Apple Watch had you tap the screen or flick your wrist to wake it – sometimes in such comically exaggerated fashion you risked beaning anyone who had the misfortune to be standing nearby. A normal watch… just showed the time. But Apple fans were hooked on health tracking and smart features – to the degree they’d wear an Apple Watch and a normal watch, despite the looks they deservedly received. The always-on display on the Series 5 changed everything. And while later models improved things further, it was that one major update that finally made Apple Watch feel like an actual watch.

38. iPod Nano – 6th generation (2010)

Apple hardware updates tend to be iterative. Barring the occasional major redesign, you broadly know what you’re getting. Not so with the iPod Nano, which over its dozen-year run lurched through seven wildly different designs, some barely looking like they were part of the same product line. The Stuff team’s favourite is the 6th-gen, a dinky square with a 1.55in multitouch display, clock app, timer and built-in fitness features. In hindsight, it looks suspiciously like a dry run for the Apple Watch – especially when you remember people immediately started strapping Nanos to their wrists by way of third-party watch bands.

37. iPhone 6 (2014)

After four years of swanky, expensive-looking iPhones with stainless steel frames (and occasional reception issues – *cough* Antennagate *cough*), Apple shook things up with the iPhone 6, a design resembling an iPad Air that had been shrunk in the wash. Surprisingly, it remained the thinnest iPhone that ever thinned until the iPhone Air showed up in 2025. Mostly, though, this one was all about the screen. This iPhone abandoned the idea your thumb should reach anywhere – unless you had banana thumbs – thanks to its 4.7in Retina HD display. The 6 Plus model pushed things even further with its surfboard-like 1080p 5.5in panel.

36. Apple II (1977)

Those of us old enough to remember the 8-bit era were too busy arguing in playgrounds about whether the ZX Spectrum or C64ruled. The Apple II predated both. The Steve Wozniak creation was, in 1977, startlingly ahead of its time, with colour graphics, rudimentary audio and serious expandability. It was the hit that bankrolled Apple’s early years and initially out-earned the Macintosh. It’s also arguably to blame for spreadsheets, given that the pioneering VisiCalc arrived on the machine. But, hey, it can’t all be positive.

35. iMovie (1999)

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If GarageBand was a recording studio stuffed into your Mac, iMovie squeezed an entire video edit suite inside. A few years earlier, an equivalent setup would have given your bank account a heart attack. But after an initial stint as a preloaded app on the iMac DV, iMovie became free for everyone. Apple never stopped tinkering with the interface, but it stayed approachable and surprisingly powerful throughout. And when the iPhone version arrived in 2010, you could – at least in theory – unleash your inner Spielberg by shooting, editing and publishing an entire Hollywood hit using only the device in your pocket.

34. iMac – 20in Aluminium (2007)

This model defined the modern iMac after an… awkward transition phase. Having realised the gorgeous ‘lamphead’ iMac didn’t work beyond 17in, Apple shoved a Mac’s guts behind – and below – a display. The chunky white monstrosity looked like the offspring of an Apple Cinema Display and an iPod, a far cry from its predecessor’s elegant floating screen vibe. Fortunately, the 2007 redesign restored the iMac’s mojo. The black bezel wasn’t slim, but it focused the eye. The metal chin as a separate strip was far less clunky. Even the new compact Apple Keyboard was a success, proving most people don’t actually need a numeric keypad.

33. AirPods Pro – 2nd generation (2022)

Plonk a pair of these and their predecessors on your desk and you’d be hard-pressed to tell them apart. But small tweaks made a big difference in this upgrade. A smaller set of bundled ear tips improved comfort for daintier lugs. The charging case adding a speaker let it unleash an ear-piercing shriek via Find My to punish you for losing it down the back of the sofa. Audio got beefier. Noise cancellation was better. And silent nod and shake head gestures to answer Siri prompts were perfect for packed trains and more fun than they had any right to be.

32. Apple Newton MessagePad (1993)

Yes, we know. The Newton’s much-touted handwriting feature was dreadful – a tiny snag, given that it was the main input method. But the device was groundbreaking in other ways. Apple’s then-CEO, John Sculley, demanded a computer that could fit into a jacket pocket and coined the term personal digital assistant – PDA. To fans, this felt like the future. To everyone else, the Newton came across like an expensive and underwhelming digital Filofax. Steve Jobs clearly agreed with the second group: he unceremoniously killed the entire Newton line on his return to Apple, presumably ignoring the many pleading messages claiming “New Ton is grape!”.

31. Magic Trackpad – 1st generation (2010)

It’ll come as no surprise that no Apple mouse makes this list. The hockey-puck USB mouse with the first iMac still gives the entire Stuff team terrifying flashbacks. But Apple always made excellent trackpads. Taking them beyond laptops was, if not magic, at least mildly witchy. And with gestural controls ramping up in Mac OS X, the Magic Trackpad quickly came into its own, boosting efficiency,

50–41 | 40–31 | 30–21 | 20–11 | 10–1

• Check out all our 50 years of Apple features so far