Trending Technology Topics From 2012

Along with the launch of the new blog, we wanted to take a look at just a few of the trending tech topics we have seen so far in 2012.

Let's start with the biggest first:

Facebook goes public

Facebook went public on May 18th 2012 with the largest IPO ever for a tech company at $38 per share however share prices quickly plummeted and it doesn't appear that the free-fall is over yet.  One might argue that we are seeing the start of the next industry bubble bursting if Facebook continues this decline.

Facebook buys Instagram

In a move that only just pre-dated the IPO launch, Facebook flexed its muscle in the tech game by purchasing Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock.

There are rumours that this was a rogue move by Mark Zuckerberg without consultation with the company's board however it certainly got the Facebook brand in the press and probably contributed to the high IPO price.

Samsung kicks goals, gets kicked and wins anyway

The publicity over the Samsung v Apple patent lawsuits doesn't appear to have stunted Samsung's rapid growth into a legitimate challenger to Apple, nor did comments from Judge Colin Birss when he awarded Samsung victory in the lawsuit by stating that the Samsung Galaxy Tablets "do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design. They are not as cool."

Kickstarter gets a kick-start

Kickstarter has become the goddess of crowd funding lately with a variety of opportunities available for both entrepreneurs looking to turn their dreams into reality and (to use the term loosely), 'investors' who want to be parted with their money.

Most recently, "App.net" attracted $500,000 in funding for its "Twitter without ads" social network project where entrepreneur Dalton Caldwell extracted $50 from people for an annual subscription to the ad-free model and access to early versions etc.

The age of crowdfunding is certainly here and Kickstarter are leading the way.

The decline of RIM

Back in March, RIM announced its Q4 earnings to reveal that revenue for the company was down 11% and that total Blackberry shipments had dropped 21%.  With the competitive mobile handset sales figures showing a continued decline from RIM it is unlikely that we will see a resurgence here any time soon.

The Google Nexus tablet appears

Google use the platform of the company's 2012 I/O conference introduce both its new Android mobile operating system and also its own tablet designed to take full advantage of its features.  While developers like Samsung are doing a great job of incorporating the Android operating system into their devices, Google wants to have a share of that market as well.

The Microsoft Surface appears

Microsoft jumped into the hardware market boots and all on June 18th by launching the Microsoft Surface tablet, effectively becoming a hardware manufacturer in the process.

This isn't an operating system blasted out to OEM's to do with what they will and perhaps in taking a leaf out of Google's book, they want to demonstrate themselves exactly how the software and hardware integrate properly.  While they have always worked closely with their OEM manufacturing partners, Microsoft always had their own way of doing things.

The iPhone 5 is coming

Faster, smarter, thinner, better seems to be the plan for Apple to wow the market with the iPhone5.  While the final configuration hasn't yet been confirmed (other than the switch to the smaller connector!) there are, as always, a flurry of inside stories and leaks that Apple appears to control better than anyone.  We are not going to debate that here but it can certainly be said that the end of the year could belong to Apple.

We certainly haven't covered every event from 2012 so far, that's a pretty exhaustive list however these were just a few that came to mind while writing this.

Leave your comments below and share any that we have missed.