Apple’s best product ever
Massive community vote ranks Apple's 50 best products ever, sparking debate on recency bias and iconic tech.
To mark Apple's 50th anniversary, The Verge conducted a massive community poll, gathering over 1.6 million votes to rank the 50 best products in the company's history. On the latest episode of The Vergecast, hosts Nilay Patel and David Pierce dive into the results, analyzing the public's choices from number 50 all the way up to the top contenders. The discussion highlights surprising placements, potential recency bias favoring newer devices, and debates whether certain iconic but niche products (like printers) were unfairly ranked.
In the second half of the episode, the hosts compare the community's top 10 list with their own meticulously crafted rankings, revealing both strong consensus and major disagreements on what defines Apple's 'best' product. The conversation serves as a broader reflection on Apple's five-decade legacy of innovation, failure, and cultural impact. The episode also touches on major AI news, including OpenAI's reported $122B funding round and 900M weekly ChatGPT users, framing it within a 'pivot to business' trend in the tech industry.
- Community poll gathered over 1.6 million votes to rank Apple's 50 best products for its 50th anniversary.
- The Vergecast episode analyzes rankings #50-1 and debates recency bias vs. lasting innovation.
- Show contrasts public top 10 with hosts' lists, revealing consensus and debate on Apple's legacy.
Why It Matters
A data-driven cultural snapshot of what consumers value most in five decades of iconic technology.