In our end of year review we look at the biggest stories in tech from 2011, and also look into our crystal balls to see what treats 2012 might have in store.
Aleks Krotoski, Charles Arthur and TechCrunch Europe's Mike Butcher begin by looking at the effect social networks such as Twitter and Facebook had on the revolutions and protests in the Middle East this year, as well as the effect of BlackBerry's BBM on the UK riots in August.
The team look back to the death of Steve Jobs and elsewhere review another amazing year for Apple – despite that sad news, the company has been very productive in the last year, Siri and iCloud are analysed.
This is in contrast to the terrible year for RIM and HP, and more mixed fortunes for Nokia in 2011 – Aleks recalls Stephen Elop's burning platform memo to the mobile phone manufacturer's employees, while Charles highlight's RIM's blunders with network outages and the launch of the Playbook blighting their year. And Mike offers some thoughts on the flip-flopping at HP who this year decided to ditch PC manufacturing ... and then reversed that decision, ditching their mobile and tablet lines in the process.
There's also a look at the year for Google – changes at the top of the company, Android being dogged by patent battles as well as the launch of Google+, and there's a report card on the government's Tech City initiative.
Keith Stuart brings us a report on the year in games – the launch of the Nintendo 3DS and Modern Warfare 3 are highlights – as well as social gaming and the hacking of Sony's PlayStation network.
The panel also pick out a few themes that may or may not be big in 2012 - 3D and Smart (internet connected) TV, the launch of Ultrabooks, the effect of the London Olympics and new games hardware.
Leave your thoughts on what we picked below – as well as anything you thought we left out – or tweet with the hashtag #tech2011 – and we'll retweet some over the festive period @guardiantw
From VG247
Comments
20 December 2011 11:03PM
Charles' comment about Nokia losing marketshare and having to throw its lot in with Microsoft isn't in accordance with the facts. Nokia was actually doing very well before Elop.
Nokia's marketshare and profits were growing, but Symbian had gone about as far as it could. Nokia would have been better off developing a new OS for its SmartPhones.
Stephen Elop has led Nokia into The Valley of the Shadow of Death with Microsoft. Whether Nokia (and possibly Microsoft) will come out the other end is very questionable.
21 December 2011 1:18AM
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22 December 2011 3:51PM
I liked the bit about Obama telling the Egyptians to keep the Internet open. Didn't a bill go through the US congress around the same time that would give the American government the authority to block the Internet in the event of a national emergency?
24 December 2011 12:34PM
Good review, where was the bloopers reel!? I was so looking forward to it! :P