2010 was a stonking year for gadget launches, as a ton of kit trampled our bank balance and changed our lives for ever. We saw the iPad, iPhone 4, PlayStation Move, Xbox Kinect, Galaxy Tab, Freeview HD and the might of Nokia and Intel launching err, MeeGo. But which was the best gadget launch of 2010?
Read on, and we’ll break down the best kit, given the best launches, and firing us up firmly for a gadget-stuffed 2011.
In fifth place… MeeGo
We flew to Mobile World Congress in February. Plonked ourselves down in Nokia’s the front row of Nokia’s press conference, and listened as the phone giant told us a brilliant story. It was all about a next-gen operating system for mobiles, netbooks, set-top boxes and more besides. It had an exotic name, MeeGo, and the backing of Intel. It was all sounding brilliant, then, almost as quickly as it had begun, the press conference was over.
Confused, we sat looking around us. It felt like a dream. Nokia had ‘launched’ something without showing it, saying when it’d be available, or really explaining what it was. And we still hadn’t seen what MeeGo looked like, what made it special (other than a seemingly split personality) or heard which devices would come running it. Imagination 1 – MeeGo 0. But yet, we’re excited about MeeGo.
Call us hopeless romantics, but when two super-firms the size of Nokia and Intel share a stage and announce a product with such confidence that they don’t need to wow us with bells and whistles from the word go, it gives us a strange feeling. We still haven’t actually seen it in the flesh, ten months on, but the fact both firms are quietly getting on with the job rather than flourishing at every opportunity gives us hope that the MeeGo launch will end up being more of an important event than anyone yet realises.
In fourth place…iPhone 4
It might’ve been one of the year’s most impressive mobiles, and the launch was a typically slick Apple affair, but when Steve Jobs launched the iPhone 4 most tech-watchers had already spent weeks poring over the design. Leaked all over the web by Gizmodo, the iPhone 4 still had a few surprises left up its precision engineered sleeve, but unfortunately for Apple, a troublesome antenna placement was amongst them.
it was the beginning of Antennagate. Lasting weeks, fueling hundreds of blog posts and news bulletins. You might even have seen Electricpig staff on the telly talking about it.
In third place… Samsung Galaxy Tab
We came. We saw (the price tag). We turned and looked the other way. The Samsung Galaxy Tab was meant to knock the iPad off its pedestal, but with a price tag clocking in at over £500, it barely wobbled Apple’s tablet tour de force. Still, we remained smitten with the titchy tablet.
Perhaps it was its ability to make phone calls (however daft you look doing it). Maybe it was the removable memory and amazing ability to play almost any media file. Still, as launches go it was slightly stilted. We got handsy with it at the unveiling at IFA in September, but then it dipped off our radar. For a long time. It wasn’t until the end of October, almost two months later, that we eventually tracked down a retail version for a full review. It didn’t disappoint, but the price tag still makes the Samsung tablet hard to swallow.
In second place… iPad
The iPad, like the iPhone before it, has had a profound effect on gadgetdom. But the launch, staggered around the world as it was, led to more frustration than jubilation. While we imported our first iPad from the US, most Brits had to wait around two months before taking their first few steps into Apple’s brave new world.
In the end though, those waiting times didn’t matter. The iPad smashed sales records and spawned a new obsession amongst gadget-makers: creating the perfect mobile computer for those more concerned with consuming data, rather than producing it. If we’re honest, few have come close to Apple since the iPad debuted earlier this year, and with the iPad 2 looming large on the 2011 horizon, we’d put our money on Apple continuing its run of good fortune.
In first place… Kinect
As impressive as those launches were though, none matched Microsoft Kinect. Let us explain: A launch is more than a press release, some pretty pictures and getting units onto shelves. It’s the chance to revel in a product’s unique nature. Prophesise that it will change the world, and yes, build up to some astonishing sales figures.
When Microsoft Kinect debuted as Project Natal it blew us away, but we had to wait months to see its final incarnation as Kinect, and Microsoft put on one helluva show to herrald its arrival.
Held at E3, with performances by Circ Du Soleil it was an unveiling like no other – you can see some of it in the video below. Animatronic elephants, an audience of thousands wearing white capes fitted with multi-colour LEDs. Oh, and a family of actors suspended upside down to demo Kinect to the crowd.
It was a spectacle, sure, but also the jumping off point for Kinect’s astonishing sales. It’s gone on to become a phenomenon, selling more units than the iPad at similar points in its lifetime, and is set to become the best selling gadget of all time.
Do you agree? Did we miss out a spectacular launch? Shout up in the comments box below.
