2009 in review: Apple's rollercoaster year

Apple has had a stormy year

We are taught as children that few foods in the world are healthier than a big, shiny apple. Fittingly enough, 'health' was a key word for Apple in 2009.

As the year began, questions and speculation about the health of chief executive and co-founder Steve Jobs were rampant. A steady and very visible progression of weight loss had been noted for over a year, and there were whispers about the possibility that a previously beaten case of cancer may have returned.

In January, meanwhile, Apple dealt a serious blow to the health of the Macworld Expo when the company gave its final keynote before leaving the event for good. To add insult to injury, it was marketing head Phil Schiller and not Steve Jobs who delivered the address.

While Jobs's absence from the keynote sparked speculation, a later announcement would create chaos in the Mac universe. The Apple chief announced that he would be stepping down from his position to take a five-month leave of absence while recovering.

Jobs would ultimately return to Apple, but only after reports surfaced that the tech icon had undergone a liver transplant.

While Jobs's health was in question throughout much of the year, the well being of his company was not. Apple was able to defy the recession by posting a string of record quarters, including its most successful three-month period ever.

Much of the success was down to the company's long time stalwart, the Macintosh computer. Headlined by a redesign of the MacBook line, Apple's flagship product was able to maintain a steady performance through the year.

Helping to push Mac sales was the release of the latest version of OS X. Although it was considered a somewhat minor update and offered to many users at a discount price, the Snow Leopard release was able to rack up strong sales for the company.

Also blossoming in 2009 was the iPhone. In the spring, Apple announced the new 3G S model, sporting a larger capacity and faster processor, along with a host of new hardware and software features.

But perhaps the greatest driver of the iPhone's success in 2009 was the App Store. Driven by an exploding pool of developers, the iPhone and iPod touch software outlet served up more than 1.5 billion downloads in its first year.

With success for the iPhone came a fresh round of controversy, however. Apple regularly found itself under fire from developers who were upset over the company's sometimes unclear policies on accepting or rejecting App Store submissions.

Additionally, the security community began to take note of the iPhone, and towards the end of the year the iPhone got its first taste of malware.

As 2009 draws to a close, it is not the iPhone that is generating buzz for Apple, but rather a new product said to be under development. Citing unusual orders given to overseas manufacturers, many industry analysts are predicting that the company is in the final stages of preparing a new tablet device for release in the first half of 2010.