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Buzz Out Loud: The CNET 100 end of the year list special!

The Buzz Out Loud team gets together for a special episode to discuss and debate CNET's end-of-the-year CNET 100 list of lists. Are the winners really winners? Are we being fair to the disappointments? Will 3D TV ever get it right? Watch the show and join the discussion at http://cnet.com/cnet100

Molly Wood Former Executive Editor

Molly Wood was an executive editor at CNET, author of the Molly Rants blog, and host of the tech show, Always On. When she's not enraging fanboys of all stripes, she can be found offering tech opinions on CBS and elsewhere, and offering opinions on everything else to anyone who will listen.

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Molly Wood

Dec. 13, 2011 7:24 p.m. PT

2 min read

Watch this: The CNET 100 end of the year list special!

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-The maybe-next-years

-The ones that keep us up at night

-CNET 100 in 100 words-ish

THE WINNERS
Putting fanaticism aside (from both sides) I cannot see why the iPhone is “”hands-down”" one of the most “”important tech products of the year.

Yes it is a great device, yes it outsold any other phone model. I know a few people that have one and love it. But that does not make a device an important tech product, it just makes it a successful one. Excluding Siri, which is a great advancement in voice assisted interfacing, the device itself was nothing more than a hardware refresh with no major innovations.

At least the Droid Razr (second mentioned) accomplished something by making the lightest, lowest profile phone without sacrificing (actually improving from what I can tell) durability, functionality, or performance.

Expanding on my previous post, I also do not see how ICS was able to secure a spot when it hasn’t even seen launch on any device in the US and is too young to truly understand its impact.

You missed one. I think the HP Touchpad was a winner. Not because it was a failed product, but because it helped to push tablet prices down and show the world that tablets are indeed a viable product when the price is right. It also showed that to compete with Apple you have to offer a lower price, because like it or not and true or not, Apple products are perceived as being better.

THE DISAPPOINTMENTS
It didn’t live up to the hype”" – Who’s hype??? Apple didn’t hype 4G, teardrop design, larger screen, a maid to clean your house – it was the MEDIA. The rumor mill in it’s attempt to churn up stories before the competition set the consumer’s expectations, NOT Apple. And heck, as an iPhone 4 owner I’m glad a game-changer that would tempt me to buy out my contract wasn’t released less than a year into my current phone. I’m content upgrading every other iteration and keeping some $ in my pocket.

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