Top 10 tech shocks of 2011

Well, we certainly didn't expect to see that

Well, what a year it's been. When 2011 rolled around there was no way anyone could have predicted quite how much of a rollercoaster ride it was.

We've seen unlikely acquisitions and alliances, untold legal battles, firms going through huge management upheavals, governments fall, and we've lost one of the greatest innovators the industry has known.

So sit back and enjoy our rundown of the events that most shocked the technology world this year.

10. The ongoing legal wars
If anyone did well out of 2011 it was the lawyers. Some of the wealthiest companies on the planet went at it in courts across the world, and the lawyers certainly weren't short of work to keep them busy.

Apple and Samsung spent the entire year at each other's throats, while Nokia took Apple for some $420m and Motorola chipped in to take Apple down a peg or two.

Meanwhile, Google found itself at the centre of an epic legal battle with Oracle while its Android operating system was being hacked to pieces by Apple and Microsoft.

In retaliation, Google made a somewhat shock purchase of Motorola for $12.5bn seemingly calculated to stem the flow of lawsuits against Android.

Few of these cases were resolved in 2011, and there can be little doubt that this is an issue affecting the technology industry's largest firms that will run and run.

Top 10 tech shocks of 2011

Well, we certainly didn't expect to see that

9. Google enters the social game with Google+
There had been talk for years of Google finally taking on Facebook with its own social networking site, and the battle began in 2011 when Google unveiled Google+.

Google+ aimed to differentiate itself from Facebook by integrating business and networking features, while privacy was also given prominence by allowing users to organise connections into 'circles' with set rules for sharing and hiding information.

Google also had the advantage of using its formidable range of web services to help push the site, by tying it in to Gmail for example, but those advantages have yet to pay off as it's hardly made a dent in Facebook's number one position.

Still, Google also has the advantage of a huge bankroll so, even if Google+ flounders early, the company can continue to push and develop the platform until it gets it right.

8. HP's management drama sees another CEO on the scrapheap
What a year it's been for HP. The venerable computing giant and the world's biggest PC manufacturer has a knack of self-imploding, and Silicon Valley is littered with the carcasses of former HP chiefs.

The past 12 months were no different as Léo Apotheker's name was added to the not-so-illustrious list alongside Carly Fiorina and Mark Hurd when he was ousted from the hotseat by the board.

Apotheker's decisions to close HP's Personal Systems Group and sign the death warrant of the TouchPad and the webOS platform were not well received, and board member Meg Whitman was shuffled into his role and set about sorting things out.

This mainly involved reversing Apotheker's decisions, meaning that HP is now back in the PC market and has turned webOS over to the open source community. Back to square one, then. Oh, and with Autonomy onboard too.

7. Apple leader Steve Jobs dies aged 56
Learning of the death of Steve Jobs was one of those 'Where were you?' moments.

Much of the industry, including V3, was at the Oracle Openworld conference and the day was just winding to a close when his death was announced by Apple, sending reporters into a scramble to cover the story.

The public showed their desire to note his passing too, with makeshift shrines appearing at Apple stores around the world as fans expressed their sympathies and thanks for Jobs' creations.

Presidents, business rivals and celebrities all spoke of their respect for Jobs, underlining the impact his work at Apple had on the world. It's doubtful we will ever see the death of another business chief evoking a similar outpouring of grief.

Top 10 tech shocks of 2011

Well, we certainly didn't expect to see that

6. Google splashes out $12.5bn on Motorola
Google grabbed the headlines when it moved into the hardware market with the shock $12.5bn acquisition of Motorola Mobility in August.

The purchase meant that the 13 year-old company that started as a search engine was transitioning from a software and media corporation into an all-purpose IT company, and propelling itself into even closer competition with Apple.

Meanwhile, Android handset makers suddenly found themselves with a new competitor that enjoyed a significant advantage in developing the operating system as well.

Analysts warned Google that the purchase could play into the hands of its major rival Microsoft by making Windows Phone a more enticing proposition to companies currently favouring the Android platform, like Samsung and HTC.

But Google has worked hard to avoid such a situation by committing to run Motorola as an independent business unit and to keeping Android as an open platform. Time will tell how long this wife-mistress love-in can last.

5. Judge orders Newzbin block as rights holders take charge
While everyone was concerned with the Digital Economy Act being used to block web sites and thereby start the process of internet censorship, it was another law that led to the first site blocking measures in the UK.

BT tried to stop the Motion Picture Association using the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act to ban the file-sharing site Newzbin 2, but judges ruled that the ISP was responsible for stopping the dissemination of material from the site.

The case was a landmark victory for rights holders, which used the ruling to launch a wave of new requests to other internet firms including Virgin Media and TalkTalk and looked to take down other sites including The Pirate Bay.

No doubt we can expect to see more sites fall under this law, despite the best efforts of ISPs to stop the law turning them into the internet's police.

Top 10 tech shocks of 2011

Well, we certainly didn't expect to see that

4. The rise of LulzSec and Anonymous
If nothing else, 2011 will be remembered - in information security circles at least - as the year of the hacktivist.

Love 'em or hate 'em, groups such as Anonymous, LulzSec and TeamPoison have created hundreds of headlines with their antics, sometimes literally, as when they hacked News International servers at the height of the phone hacking scandal to post a phoney article claiming Rupert Murdoch was dead.

Anarchic, clever and, for the most part, anonymous, these groups have launched DDoS attacks, stolen and posted millions of internet credentials, and even helped to drum up support for the anti-capitalist Occupy events.

Although law enforcers claimed over the summer and beyond that they had tracked down most of the key masterminds, the disparate nature of these groups ensures we haven't heard the last of the hacktivist. The only question is what they will do to grab the headlines in 2012.

3. Twitter users break the law as superinjunctions fall flat
If there was one thing that 2011 showed us, it was the sheer power of social media.

The legal world was thrown into chaos in May when a series of superinjunctions taken out by celebrities to ban papers reporting on their misdemeanors were broken by thousands of Twitter users publishing the details online.

Soon enough MPs were using parliamentary privilege to reveal the identities of those involved, namely Ryan Giggs, and a whole new era of legal uncertainty and debate was opened.

How do you stop thousands upon thousands of social media users breaking the law?

Top 10 tech shocks of 2011

Well, we certainly didn't expect to see that

2. Rioters run wild as social media causes, then cleans up, disturbances
Police forces across the UK faced the very question of stopping thousands of social media users from breaking the law during the summer, but with the added horror that it was impacting the physical world as riots occurred in London, Manchester and Birmingham.

The riots were co-ordinated and extended by social tools including Twitter and BlackBerry Messenger, and some MPs called for the services to be switched off to help curb violence.

Even the government waded in, ham-fistedly suggesting that it may consider banning such services in the future to help police, but the power of social media to help was also seen during the riots when law-abiding citizens organised clean-ups in riot-hit areas via Twitter.

1. Long-running despots toppled by Twitter
The most staggering example of how social media is changing the world was seen in the Middle East, where it contributed to the toppling of some of the world's longest running dictatorships by helping to fuel uprisings in countries such as Egypt and Libya.

Twitter was used as the primary method of communication between protesters in Egypt as they set up demonstrations against the government and president Hosni Mubarak, and told the world what was going on in the country.

Mubarak cut access to the internet, mobile phone services and even Twitter for 24 hours in an attempt to quash the protests. This was in vain, though, and he was forced to flee what's been described as the first 'social media revolution'.

Uprisings soon spread to neighbouring countries including Libya and Syria as citizens looked to emulate what they'd seen in Eqypt, and this led to the overthrow and death of Colonel Gadaffi after a long and bloody civil war.

YouTube also helped to show the world what was actually happening to protestors on the ground, sparking international condemnation of heavy-handed tactics in use by dictators and even direct support from the US and UK in Libya.

While social media didn't cause these revolutions, and it's the people who deserve the ultimate praise for taking down these regimes, there can be little doubt of the importance of sites like Twitter in facilitating these protests and the power that social media tools provide to the world.