Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Tech's Winners and Losers of 2010:

The scope of Steve Jobs' gains in 2010 is truly impressive. People bought more than 8 million iPads after the Apple CEO shipped the tablet computer in April; a device no one imagined needing in 2009 now outsells Apple's flagship Macintosh. Jobs' previous creation, the iPhone, doubled 2009 unit sales and now generates half of Apple's revenue. Apple stock is up 50 percent year over year; profits, 70 percent.

Then there's Jobs' growing influence outside of tech. In 2010 old-school media moguls had to worry if he might get them fired or publicly embarrassed as they raced to replace technologies he didn't like and submit to his bans on political cartoons, gay literature, racy fashion spreads, and other "porn."