The year 2008 saw some major developments in the Macintosh world. Here’s a look back at some of the biggest stories.

Apple had a phenomenal year, reporting the best quarter in company history in the first quarter ,followed by equally impressive performance in the second and third quarters, with Mac sales reaching an all time high in the 4th quarter.

The year started with a bang at Macworld expo, when Apple introduced the MacBook Air, a major upgrade to the AppleTV, and Movie Rentals in iTunes.

Unfortunately, Apple announced that they are pulling out of Macworld following the 2009 show.

Probably the biggest news of 2008 was the iPhone 3G and the huge bonanza it brought for application developers, selling over 10 million app store downloads in first weekend.

The itunes music store turned five years old and became the top music retailer in the US.

WWDC 2008 was the biggest ever, selling out for the first time. Besides iPhone 3G development opportunities, the other big announcement was Snow Leopard, which emphasizes reliability & efficiency rather than new features.

In October, Apple introduced a new Aluminum MacBook family, bringing the MacBook Air’s style & manufacturing technique to the entire line of laptops. At the same event, Apple also introduced a 24″ LED cinema display. Other major hardware releases included new aluminum iMacs, hinting at some design cues later seen in the Macbooks.

Some of the most intense competition occurred in virtualization software, with Parallels & VMWare both releasing major upgrades and allowing Mac OS X Server to be run in a virtual machine. Meanwhile, CodeWeavers gave away Crossover free on Oct. 27 thanks to the average gasoline prices in the Twin Cities falling to $2.79 a gallon.

Adobe introduced Creative Suite 4, while Apple released Aperture 2, a major step forward for their professional photo management software. Nikon shook up the photography world with their D90, the first DSLR camera that also shoots video, followed by Canon’s 5D Mark II.

Mac Software developers joined forces with MacHeist, MacUpdate Promo, and others to raise money for charity while bringing big software discounts to customers.