The little guy didn't do a lot, but it brought the concept of a graphical user interface (GUI) to the attention of the general public for the very first time.  People loved it; few found a show-stopping use for it.  Most became pretty word processing machines; particularly being portrayed as such in a variety of movies.

After some gradual product evolution and a very messy divorce in 1985, Steve Jobs came back to a near-dead Apple in 1997. 

The first clear fruit of Jobs' return was the iMac - the bubble-gum coloured transparent machines that sold 800,000 units in 20 weeks, yielding Apple an average profit of $385 per machine. 

To some extent, the coolness outweighed the usability, which is why large numbers ended up in schools and other low-impact usage environments.

Suddenly Apple took a huge left-turn and in 2001 the iPod was born.  Initially intended as an adjunct to Apple's range of computers, the iPod could only communicate with one of those to transfer songs.  A solution looking for a problem.

They found the problem when iTunes was ported to the Windows platform.  Suddenly the plan to build and extend a proprietary Apple computer-based media centre exploded into the real world.  People wanted the iPod just for itself.  This was the cool device that we ALL wanted to own; Apple was now completely mainstream. 

By 2009, the iPod held over 70% of the digital music player market.