Apple had many wins this past year. The iPad would be one, for certain.
But something more subtle and to my knowledge undiscussed might have been even bigger.

In various main-stream media, we often see pictures of computers. They might be used to signify an activity such as "at work or at play," or "planning your vacation." They might symbolize common ideas such as "professional," or "modern."
And just like main-stream computing, these images have nearly always been of fairly ugly, black or grey, low-end PCs.
In my mind, 2010 was the year the MacBook arrived on the billboard. The mainstream, it seems, now knows what a MacBook actually is - it's a computer. And, advertisers seem to no longer want to associate themselves with the alternatives.
One campaign still running in Denver even shows a Windows desktop on a MacBook Pro. This provided both "window dressing" for the operating system more of the public was familiar with, and a "Oops! Made-you-look!" effect on Mac owners. Ironically, it was the MacBook they were selling last year, not the new model from 2010.
So, I was pleased this morning to notice my first instance of the new MacBook Air used as the face of information. In this case, it is the face of communication. On Skype's homepage, you can see the MacBook Air in one of the rotating promotions.
After handling a new Air, I don't think humanity will ever turn back. (Sorry Dell.)
And so we end 2010 having just squeezed in that next step, after trending to Macs on our billboards: beginning the conversion to the MacBook Air.