Apple’s highs and lows of 2014

Where did 2014 go? It seems like only yesterday we were preparing for WWDC and now we’re headed into 2015. Thinking back over the past year you might be excused if you thought that now a lot had really happened. Sure Apple launched two new iPhones, revealed the Apple Watch, and revamped both its operating systems, but did Apple enough to keep its fans happy, and was everything as rosy as the gorgeous Yosemite sunset images would suggest?

Here are some of the hits and misses for Apple this year.

Apple misses

1. Apple started 2014 unable to fulfil orders of the new Mac Pro. Launched just before the end of 2013, some of the 2013 orders weren’t fulfilled until February 2014.

2. A security flaw discovered in late February could allow a hacker to intercept your data when your Mac, iPad or iPhone was connected to an unprotected WiFi hotspot. Apple patched the flaw quite quickly, but unfortunately for Apple this was one of a number of security issues to hit iOS in 2014.

3. May saw a US jury find Samsung guilty of violating Apple patents. They awarded Apple $119 million in damages, but this was below Apple’s hoped-for $2.2 billion. Both companies went on to challenge the verdict.

4. Apple had yet more setbacks in the case in August, with Judge Lucy Koh finding that: “Apple has not established that it suffered significant harm in the form of either lost sales or reputational injury.”

5. At the end of August Apple announced an iPhone 5 battery replacement programme, claiming that a “very small percentage” of iPhones were affected. That same month Apple began to offer a Sleep/Wake button replacement programme for the iPhone 5 after it determined that the “sleep/wake button mechanism on a small percentage of iPhone 5 models may stop working or work intermittently”. Read: How to fix broken iPhone lock button.

6. Topping off the bad news in August came reports that nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence and around 100 big-name stars including Cara Delevigne, Cat Deeley, Kelly Brook, and Rihanna had made their way onto image bulletin board 4chan. By some means hackers had been able to access celebrity photos that were stored in iCloud, although Apple claims that the privacy breach was not the result of a compromise of any of the systems used for its iCloud storage service. Read: how to make sure your photos can’t leak from iCloud.

7.  iOS 8 was available to download a few days after the iPhone launch event in September but it ran into some trouble due to its requirement that installers had more than 5GB of free space on their device. As a result the adoption of iOS 8 is behind that of iOS 7. Read:  how to download iOS 8 without deleting anything.

8. The iPod classic was discontinued on 9 September because the 160GB hard drive was no longer being manufactured by the supplier.

9. October saw the launch of Yosemite, the new version of OS X. While the new operating system has much to recommend it, some users were (and still are) frustrated by WiFi issues following installation of the update.

10. There were more iOS security concerns in November when malware was discovered that was said to take advantage of a glitch in an iOS feature that allows organisations to install their own apps on non-jailbroken iOS devices. WireLurker was followed by another iOS 8 malware threat known as Masque Attack. Before you run out and buy an Android phone, you would have to disable and ignore Apple’s substantial iOS security measures to be affected. Read: iPhone and iPad security

Read next: The 11 worst Apple products of all time

Apple hits

1. Remember the NSA scandal? In January Apple released a statement relating to its involvement in this, claiming that: “We believe strongly that our customers have the right to understand how their personal information is being handled…” adding: “Personal conversations are protected using end-to-end encryption over iMessage and FaceTime, and Apple does not store location data, Maps searches, or Siri requests in any identifiable form”.

2. 24 January was a big day for Apple and the Mac – it had been 30 years since Apple introduced the first ever Macintosh. Apple celebrated this milestone with a Happy Birthday Mac website which included a timeline and stories from Mac users who visited the site.

3. In April Apple  updated the MacBook Air and lowered prices for the popular laptop range, now starting at £749.

4. Apple introduced a new  cheaper iMac in June. The £899 entry-level model was added to the existing range of iMacs, all of which saw a price drop.

5. Also in June Apple split its stock so that investors got seven shares for every one share they owned. Read about how to invest in AAPL shares here.

6. Apple updated the  MacBook Pro with Retina display in July boosting the processors and lowering prices.

7. Apple sold 10 million new  iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus handsets in the first weekend of sales in September – 4 million of those in the first 10 hours. In 2013 the iPhone 5s and 5c combined to achieve 9 million sales in the first weekend

8. Apple October event might have seen Apple launch two new iPads but we were most excited about the new 5K iMac with Retina display and the Mac mini, which finally received a boost after two years.

9. At the very end of October Apple CEO Tim Cook came out as gay, stating that “If hearing that the CEO of Apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is, or bring comfort to anyone who feels alone, or inspire people to insist on their equality, then it’s worth the trade-off with my own privacy.”

10. In a great end to the year, at the end of November, Apple’s share price surpassed $100. If you consider this in terms of the pre-split stock price (Apple split its stock back in June), it had finally broken through the $700 barrier. At the same time Apple’s Market Cap surpassed all records and made Apple the most valuable company in the world: the first company to be worth $700bn.

Not bad for a year where not very much happened.