Apple's blockbuster 2015: Year in review

By Rene Ritchie
last updated

Apple Music
Apple Music (Image credit: iMore)

When you start to think about everything Apple released this year, it seems almost unimaginable for a company that only a decade ago had but one platform and just a handful of products. They launched a new product category with the Apple Watch, relaunched one with the new Apple TV, expanded another with the iPad Pro, turned media into services with Photos and Apple Music, and revamped almost everything else.

Scaling like that would be hard for any company no matter how successful, but for one that prides itself on tight focus and small teams, it's even harder. It wasn't perfect and it didn't come without cost, for Apple, developers, and customers. Yet looking back now, it's also impossible not to be impressed but just how much Apple accomplished in 2015.

We'll start looking forward to 2016 soon enough but, for now, let's take a final look back Here's an overview, including the in-depth year in review podcast series Serenity Caldwell and I recorded, and links to all the major reviews and news.

Spring 2015

The March event returned this year and in a big way. The Apple Watch, previewed last year, got a second, more detailed introduction and a launch. The new MacBook with Retina display and Force Touch trackpad debuted, and Apple surprised and delighted us with new framework for medical research called ResearchKit. Photos for OS X, also previewed last year, launched in the spring as well.

January

February

March

April

Summer 2015

June was highlighted, as always, by Apple's World Wide Developers Conference. And WWDC 2015 was the biggest to date. Not only did we get the unveiling of iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan, but of watchOS 2, Swift 2.0, and an all-new streaming and radio service called Apple Music. Then, in July, we got surprised by an updated iPod touch to run all that Apple Music on.

May

June

July

August

Fall 2015

Fall brought Apple's annual September event. Because there wasn't going to be an October event this year, the result was the debut of a dizzying array of new products, including the Apple Watch Hermès, new gold and rose gold finishes for Apple Watch Sport, iPad mini 4 and iPad Pro with Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, and an all-new Apple TV with its very own App Store.

September

October

November

December

Your 2015?

Those were the biggest products and announcements from Apple in 2015. Which were your favorites? Which were the hardware, software, services, and news that meant the most to you?

Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.