Welcome to top five, where we count down things.
I'm your host Iyaz Akhtar.
If you pay attention to sites like cnet, you stay well informed and know what's going on in the tech world.
You think you know how everything will turn out.
But that's always the case.
Sometimes the unexpected happens.
Today, we're counting down the top five surprise tech hits.
At number five, Netbooks.
Remember these things?
For a short while, Netbooks were all the rage.
The Asus EPC ushered in the Netbooks age.
These laptops could do little more than browse the web, hence the name.
Some had tiny screens.
The most important thing about netbooks was the price.
They were super cheap.
Sure these computers couldn't do much, but who could complain when these laptops cost a few hundred bucks.
Netbooks eventually died out thanks to better phones and tablets.
At number four is the Apple iPod.
Four hundred dollars for a music player.
You're out of your mind, Apple.
Out of your mind.
The music player market was well established in 2001.
I'm not talking about the digital music player market, I'm talking about the music player market.
Sony was one of the leaders in the Digital music players were using solid state memory like your phone does and could hold a handful of songs Apple used a tiny 1.8 inch spinning hard drive for its 5 gigabyte iPod claiming it could hold about 1,000 songs in your pocket.
Analysts didn't think the iPod could have legs since it was a Mac only product at the time.
Eventually, Apple opened up the iPod to Windows users, and together with the iTunes music store, put together quite the powerhouse.
[NOISE] At number three, Nintendo Wii.
How often do we think Nintendo is down for the count?
A lot.
We thought the same thing back when the Nintendo Wii was introduced.
Microsoft and Sony were running the show.
Nintendo decided it wasn't going to play by their rules, by going with motion control in the Nintendo Wii.
The graphics were less than amazing, the specs on the hardware weren't spectacular.
But the gameplay was flat out fun.
Nintendo Wii was very difficult to purchase at launch, because it was the "it" product.
These days Nintendo is down for the count right They can't ever come back, right?
Right.
At number two, the Apple iPad.
When the iPad was introduced, tablets already existed and had largely failed.
Why on earth would it succeed now?
Reactions to the iPad in production were mixed as well.
[MUSIC]
Why would anyone want to use a big iPod Touch?
Why would anyone wanna use one of these things?
Also, what about that name?
Great question.
But people really didn't seem to care.
The iPad became a huge hit for Apple.
iPad outsold Macs, and Apple reinvented the tablet market.
Larger phones seem to have eaten away at tablet sales.
But that's.
Probably why Apple introduced the iPad Pro.
At number 1, the Samsung Galaxy Note.
When the original Samsung Galaxy Note was introduced, it was described to have an absolutely gigantic screen, 5.3 inches.
That's insane.
Well, it was insane in 2011.
That was really unusual.
It also included a stylus, which seemed like an odd choice at the time.
Samsung often ridiculed as lacking in creativity made something different with the Note.
It was unlike all other phones in the market.
Its large size put it in a space between phones and tablets.
So what did Samsung do?
It told ten million units in 9 months.
Huge Phone?
Huge hit.
And there you go, the Top 5 Surprise Tech HIts.
What's that?
I can almost hear you yelling at the screen.
First, Stop.
This isn't live.
I can't really hear you.
Second, let me know what you think on Twitter.
I'm at Iyaz.
For more top fives like this visit Top five dot C net dot com.
Thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time.
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