I think it was the iPod that saved Apple from dying, but I honestly think it was Windows Vista that propelled them to the limelight (whether the criticism of Vista was valid or not).
iPods were definitely a huge growth driver for the Mac, but Apple without the iPod or the benefit of Vista would still be far from dead.
It could have gone so much better if the computers didn't seem so slow to respond.
But in addition to that there were indeed criticism that wasn't valid and any program not working or anything else wrong with the computer was blamed on vista, mac just seemed to grab a hold of these ideas and advertise in the right way (I'm a mac).