1. Facebook Goes Public
It makes sense that the year's biggest tech news story so far is also the most controversial. After years of speculation, Mark Zuckerberg finally decided to take the company he founded in his Harvard dorm room public.
Facebook filed for an initial public offering on February 1, opening its usually clandestine inner workings to the public. We learned that Facebook had just under 900 million users. We also learned that although it saw huge growth over the past few years, that its momentum was slowing and would more than likely continue to slow. Zuckerberg told prospective investors that the company is alright with its velocity and that they should understand that Facebook is run on the "hacker ethos." The filing captivated the world. People who had no idea what a S1 document was, poured over the PDF.
Facebook's share price of $38 would value the young company at a hefty $104 billion, making it the most valuable company to ever file an IPO. Things got off to a foretelling start on opening day when a technical glitch with the NASDAQ exchange prevented orders from being placed. The stock soared early on but bobbed back down as the day continued. The following weeks of trading wouldn't be as generous as the share price fell as much as $10 by June 1, causing investors to lose up to $40 billion.
In the wake of the IPO, analysts chastised both Facebook and its underwriters for their alleged poor handling of the process. The Wall Street Journal said that the effects of this could harm future technology IPOs. Lawsuits were filed by those who blamed the Morgan Stanley and glitches from preventing them from selling their shares. The company is also being investigated by the Security and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for all the trouble surrounding the IPO.
2. Megaupload Gets Shut Down
The arrests raised questions over whether the U.S. government had the right to arrest a citizens of other countries for crimes not committed in the United States. But what really raised eyebrows was the man who was listed as CEO: Swizz Beatz. Before the website was shut down, Megaupload received endorsements from a bunch of celebrities including Kanye West and Beatz's wife, Alicia Keys.
As it stands, Megaupload is still shut down. Visit the website and you'll see a banner from the U.S. government explaining that the site has been seized. Kim Dotcom is currently fighting against the FBI's extradition request. Recently a New Zealand judge ruled that the police acted on an unlawful search warrant when they raided Dotcom's home. Who knows what's going to happen next.
3. Microsoft Unveils Tablets, Becomes Hardware Maker
The 18th of June was one of the most important days in Microsoft's history. At a low-key (for Microsoft) press event, it introduced one of the best products to ever bear its name: a 9mm thick, 1.5-pound tablet computer that runs Windows 8, and comes with a case that doubles as a full QWERTY keyboard. But that's not what made the day so important. It's the fact that the tablet was made in house by Microsoft. Not Asus or HP or Dell. The true value of that day can be seen in the implications the Surface tablet represents. For the first time in its history, Microsoft has pitted itself in direct competition with the hardware companies it relied on to push its software. It also signified, at least symbolically, that Apple had the right idea all along: If possible, a company should build the software and hardware
4. Google Enters Your Living and Tablet Market
The Nexus 7 tablet is a continuation of Google's attempt to set the standard of what an Android device should be. When the Samsung-made Nexus smartphone dropped it was a clear sign of what a clean, focused Android handset could be. Nexus phones are powerful, a pleasure to use, and unencumbered by the usual bloatware that comes with most Android handsets. The Nexus 7 aims to do that for that for the Android tablet. It's no secret that the only thing selling worse than Android tablets are Riff Raff albums. Google believes if it sets the bar with its 7-inch, ASUS-built, Android 4.1-running tablet others will follow suit.
Less expected than the tablet was the Nexus Q, a sphere-shaped streaming device that is aimed squarely at the Apple TV. It works seamlessly with Android devices—anyone with an Android phone can control it and stream content to it. Google calls it the "first ever social streaming device—like a cloud-connected jukebox where everyone brings their own music to the party." For those keeping count, Google now has laptops, smartphones, tablets, and streaming media boxes. Game on.
5. Apple Releases the Ultimate Laptop. Again
Ever since Apple equipped the iPhone 4 with its high-resolution Retina Display, the Apple faithful has been waiting for the HD screen to make its way down the entire Mac product line. This year the new iPad received the upgrade, leaving many to believe that the MacBook had to be next. People were also waiting for the MacBook Pro line to get a major refresh. When the last-gen MacBook Air was launched, Apple said the entire MacBook line would take cues from the MBA. No one expected Apple to combine both tenets into one product, but at the 2012 WWDC, it did just that with the MacBook Pro with Retina Display.
Thinner, lighter, packed to the brim with next-gen technology, and sporting the best display ever put onto a laptop, the 15-inch MacBook is the best laptop—maybe, just maybe the best computer—to ever come out of Cupertino, CA. Apple once again set the bar against which all other laptops will be measured.
6. RIM Implodes
Where do we begin? This year has been one of refocusing for
BlackBerry's parent company, Research in Motion. We've heard that word a
lot from Canadian handset maker over the past few months. We heard it
when RIM announced its Q4 earnings in March and we learned that revenue
for the company was down 11% and that total BlackBerry shipments dropped
21%. We heard it when RIM co-founders Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis
resigned amidst investor pressure for a change in the beleaguered
company's leadership. We heard it again when a parade of board members
and executives including the company's global sales head and chief legal
officer. And we heard it once more when plans came out of RIM making
5,000 layoffs worldwide in an attempt to cut costs.It's clear 2012 won't be a banner year for RIM. The company has been courted by the likes of Microsoft looking to secure more smartphone marketshare. Despite that, the company, now under the steer of CEO Thorsten Heins, is working on turning the company around and, you guessed it, refocusing the company's goals. There's been talk of leveraging its strength in the enterprise space once the highly anticipated BlackBerry 10 phone ships, as a way to bolster the financials. Heins wants to guide the company back on track. He proposed focusing on a "smaller number of devices in the market at any given time," and cutting unnecessary costs. Luckily, the company has pillowy $2.2 billion in cash reserves to ride out what will undoubtedly be a cold winter.
7. Kickstarter Breaks Records, Becomes Serious Fundraising Platform
Ever since Kickstarter started its quest of streamlining the process of crowd funding for entrepreneurs looking to get out their dreams in 2008, there has been talk of its model negating the need for venture capitalists for micro start-ups. However, when Eric Migicovsky posted his prototype for a digital watch with an e-paper display that connects to iPhone and Android devices, he proved that Kickstarter may be able to give VCs a true run for their money.
Migicovsky's goal for the Pebble watch was a sizable sum of $100,000. He blew past that mark within hours. Three weeks later, the project broke through all of Kickstarter's previous fundraising record of $3.3 million, by drawing in $7.8 million. The success not only cemented the fact that the Pebble watch will be a success when launched, but that anyone with a good enough idea can make it
Remember the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA)? No? You should. The legislation proposed by House Judiciary Committee Chair Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-TX), sought to all the U.S. Department of Justice and copyright holders to take legal action against websites outside of the U.S. that traffic copyrighted material and goods. SOPA would have allowed the DOJ to bar ad networks from advertising on certain websites and prohibit search engines from linking to sites deemed to be illegal.
Naturally, the bill found many, many opponents. And not rinky dink web operations, either. Major, billion-dollar companies objected to SOPA: Google, Yahoo!, eBay, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, AOL, and the Mozilla Corporation all voiced their opposition to the bill. But it was Wikipedia and Reddit, the popular social news site, that really got down for the cause. On January 18, the two sites, along with many others, orchestrated a service blackout. The sites shut down for the day and put up banners explaining why they weren't operating and instructing people to sign petitions against SOPA.
Their silence spoke volumes. On January 20, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Smith put off plans to draft the bill.
9. Facebook Buys Instagram
Any doubts anyone had about Facebook being a major player in the tech game, on the level of Google, Microsoft, and Apple, were wiped away when Facebook unexpectedly picked up Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock. It was a move that not only showed the prowess of the company that was set to go public a month later, but also of Mark Zuckerberg who reportedly didn't include the company's board in the decision to buy the popular photo sharing social network.
10. Samsung Wins Apple Patent Lawsuit, Everyone Laughs
Apple and Samsung have been embroiled in a contentious patent suit since April 2011 when Apple accused the South Korean company of making products that were similar "beyond the realm of coincidence" to the iPhone and iPad. The lawsuit was like a white-collar world war, taking place in a number of countries and consuming a vast number of financial resources. For a while it seemed like it would never end. The two companies met in late May to hash out their differences and walked away no better than they arrived.
Then, finally, earlier this month, the lawsuit—well, a part of it, anyway—came to a hilarious and unexpected conclusion. Judge Colin Birss ruled that Samsung's Galaxy tablets did not have the same "They do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design. They are not as cool."
Hey, a win's a win, right.
source:www.complex.com/tech/2012/07/the-10-biggest-tech-news-stories-of-2012-so-far/
