TORONTO – While Apple Maps sent some on unfathomable adventures to airports that never existed and treks deep into the Australian outback this year, others were busy changing their LinkedIn passwords thanks to hackers.
But despite some bumps in the road like these, there were also some big success stories in the tech world in 2012.
Space nerds rejoiced as the Mars Curiosity rover sent its first images from the Red Planet and the Android gained significant market share in smartphone sales.
Global News looks back at some of the top tech wins and fails in 2012.
Wins
1. The year of the GIF
2012 was a big year for the Graphics Interchange Format, commonly known as the GIF. In addition to celebrating its 25th birthday, it was named the ‘2012 Word of the Year’ by Oxford American Dictionary thanks to its ubiquitous use on the Internet.
GIFs even became their own form of journalism this year – Tumblr reported live on the U.S. presidential debates using the animated images. “We take the potential of legitimate GIF journalism very seriously,” said Tumblr editor-in-chief Chris Mohney in press release.
2. The rise of Android
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Apple and Google have been at odds for years, but in 2012 the Android platform grew by leaps and bounds. According to a report by Gartner, Android’s market share jumped to 72.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2012, up from 52.5 per cent in the same period last year.
According to the report, some of Android’s success came at the expense of RIM and Symbian, who both experienced a huge loss of their market share.
3. Instagram is bought by Facebook
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Instagram was the subject of Facebook’s largest acquisition ever after the social network bought the photo-sharing app for $1 billion in cash and stocks in April. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that it was an important milestone for the company due to the volume of users that Instagram carried with it.
By the time the deal was completed in September it fell to about $740 million due to Facebook’s falling stock price. While the deal was a win for Facebook, the newly merged companies ran into trouble recently after Instagram’s new user agreement used misleading language, leading users to believe Instagram would sell their photos for advertising purposes without compensation. Instagram apologized and assured users this was not the case, though user protest remained heated.
4. Mars Curiosity
After surviving the “seven minutes of terror,” plunging into the Martian atmosphere at over 20,000 km/hr on Aug. 6, the Mars Curiosity gently landed inside a crater on Mars and beamed back a photo of its own shadow. The landing of the robot was a huge feat for NASA, with hopes that Curiosity’s discoveries will pave the way for an astronaut landing.
Fails
1. Apple Maps
Apple boasted about the functionality of its new iOS operating system, iOS6, in September – but hit a snag when it came to its new mapping app Apple Maps. Frustration over lack of transit directions and poor traffic notifications were common complaints heard by iOS users.
Some of the more glaring mistakes included a made-up airport, car routes that directed users over major bodies of water and into the middle of the Australian outback, instead of towns. Apple CEO Tim Cook later released a statement apologizing for Apple Maps and urged users to use an alternate until fixes became available.
2. Facebook’s failed IPO
News of the social network’s impending IPO dominated headlines when it was announced in February, but once trading started on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, Facebook’s IPO didn’t quite go as expected.
Once the stock started trading, it briefly surged, before closing the day at pennies above the IPO price. And then the bottom fell out. Facebook has lost about 20 per cent of its value since going public. Actually, investors have lost 20 per cent of what they put into the company; and lost even more if they bought when the stock was trading above $40.
3. BlackBerry 10 delays
After a series of turbulent times for the Waterloo, Ontario based company, RIM took another blow in June after announcing the delay of their new operating system and smartphones until 2013. Industry analysts said there was “no hope left” for the BlackBerry-maker after the announcement.
“For most consumers, the delay is inconsequential because we have given up hope. We are sick of RIM’s excuses and we don’t trust them in terms of being able to stick to their deadlines,” said John-Kurt Pliniussen, associate professor of innovation and Internet marketing at Queen’s School of Business in Kingston.
4. Six million LinkedIn Passwords leaked
LinkedIn users scrambled to change their passwords in June after the social network said it was investigating reports that six million passwords had been stolen and leaked onto the Internet.
Graham Cluley, a consultant with U.K. web security company Sophos, said in a blog post that a file containing more than six million encrypted passwords has been posted on the Internet and hackers are working together to crack them. LinkedIn later said it was “unable to confirm if a security breach had occurred.”
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