Year: 2002

Apple announced today that it has begun shipping the Xserve, its recently introduced rack-mount server, and has received orders for over 4,000 units since May. In addition, the company released benchtest results that show the Xserve outperforming similarly configured servers from Dell, IBM and Sun in a variety of tests from speed to disk performance.

Apple has taken four awards in the annual I.D. Magazine Design Review. In the Computer Products & Equipment category, the Apple design team took a ‘Best of Category’ award for the Titanium PowerBook G4 (“It’s a seamless blend of high tech, art and grace.

Apple has acquired Emagic, makers of the Logic product line of digital audio and MIDI sound tools and WaveBurner Pro. Emagic will operate as a wholly owned division of Apple. Mac-based products make up more than 65 percent of Emagic’s current revenues, while the company’s Windows-based product offerings will be discontinued on September 30. Neither company disclosed the sale price.

With Apple taking five Industrial Design Excellence Awards, Washington Post columnist Linda Hales writes in detail about Apple design prowess. “They could easily have created a new category: The sparkling little iMac is, if not the most powerful, certainly the most accommodating computer the marketplace has ever seen… It is all but impossible for a design critic not to gush about Apple.

Apple’s iMac, iPod, and its Apple Stores were awarded top honors at the 2002 Industrial Design Excellence Awards. The iMac won gold in the Computer Equipment category (“Apple does it again!… The iMac is a paradigm shift that will be copied, but is unlikely to be surpassed.”); the iPod took gold honors for Consumer Products (“The iPod shines as the most memorable design solution of IDEA entries this year.”); and the design of Apple’s retail stores took gold in the Environments category, as did Apple’s booth at Macworld Expo San Francisco 2002.