A South Korea shop manager shows Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S mobile phone (R) and Apple's iPhone 3G at a shop in Seoul on July 27, 2010. With Apple's new smartphone beset by complaints over reception problems, South Korean distributors are struggling to stop users defecting to rivals amid a delay in its release. (Park Ji-Hwan/AFP/Getty Images)A South Korea shop manager shows Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S mobile phone (R) and Apple's iPhone 3G at a shop in Seoul on July 27, 2010. . (Park Ji-Hwan/AFP/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — It’s that time of year where tech analysts, much like editors, put together their year-end lists. Apple’s first year without Steve Jobs along with their legal strife against Samsung near the top of my list of biggest tech stories of 2012.
Jobs passed away in October 2011. In their first full year without the tech legend, they managed to pull off releasing the iPhone 5 and the iPad Mini. The devices were both important, but by no means would I call it revolutionary.
Also, a jury ordered Samsung to pay $1.05 billion to Apple in a highly-publicized patent infringement case, but the case remains far from settled. It wasn’t a great year, given the Apple Maps controversy, but overall the company is doing well.
