2011: Top 10 stories on ZDNet Mobile News
It is hard to believe that 2011 is rapidly drawing to a close. It is just as hard to believe that it is coming up on a full year since starting this blog on ZDNet to cover the top mobile stories. In this period of reflection, looking back at the ten most popular articles on ZDNet Mobile News gives a good picture of the mobile space this year.
This was a year of top tablet news, and none as popular with readers as the ill-fated HP TouchPad. The TouchPad only lived 49 days in the market before getting the kiss of death from HP, but readers flocked to the articles that detailed how to get good performance form the tablet. Three of the top stories this year, including the most popular by a wide margin, dealt with how to make the TouchPad perform as good as any tablet on the market. Perhaps if HP had enabled these fixes out of the box the TouchPad wouldn't have been universally panned in the tech press.
HP TouchPad: Everything you want to know (August 2011)
Overclocking the HP TouchPad cranks up the speed (August 2011)
Unsurprisingly, Android regularly topped the charts with popular stories this year. Stories sharing good apps for smartphones and tablets got a lot of air time. A surprisingly popular story dealt with the Gingerbread update for the HTC EVO 4G.
Top 10 Android apps for the Samsung Galaxy Tab (January 2011)
5 Android apps that should be on every smartphone (June 2011)
Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets (June 2011)
Hands-on with the HTC EVO 4G Gingerbread update (June 2011)
The ASUS Transformer Prime got me excited when it was announced last month, given its superior hardware specs, innovative laptop dock, and the promise to get Ice Cream Sandwich running on it. Sadly, just this week it is becoming clear that the release of this tablet is now delayed to next year, so perhaps it will end up being a top story in 2012, too.
ASUS Transformer Prime: The Android tablet to rule them all (November 2011)
As evident in the top stories for 2011, I have been a long-time fan and user of Android devices. I still am, but my walk on the dark side touched a nerve with Android enthusiasts. Two of the top stories dealt with my purchase of the iPhone 4S, and how I view the user experience on it versus that of Android. I got a lot of hate mail for these stories, bad enough to keep me up nights.
iPhone 4S: Day 1 with an Android phone owner (October 2011)
After the iPhone 4S Android just feels wrong (October 2011)
No doubt 2012 will see Android and iOS continue to dominate the top news, but it is doubtful we will hear much out of the HP webOS soap opera. Of course, HP has been less than confident how it has handled the platform to date, so perhaps it will rise like the Phoenix yet again.