The Top 10 stories of 2008: Not business as usual

What started out as a banking crisis became, in 2008, a story for everyone: retailers, consumers, auto workers -- and tech professionals. Though it wasn't business as usual, some big mergers -- like HP buying EDS -- were executed. Long-awaited products like the Android-based G1 "Google phone" were launched. Standards wars involving file formats like OOXML and hardware technology like Blu-Ray concluded. The battle against spam purveyors like McColo went on ... and on. Microsoft, moving into middle age and struggling to gain ascendance on the Web, was involved in many of the biggest stories of the year. The most influential entrepreneur of our time, Bill Gates, moved on to focus on philanthropy. Here, not necessarily in order of importance, is our pick for the top 10 technology stories of the year.

The recession pulls the plug on tech
On December 1, the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research made it official: The American economy has been in a recession since December 2007. The tech sector is not immune. The conventional wisdom until the end of 2008 was that since corporate IT budgets were slashed after the dot-com bust, there isn't much left to cut. Therefore, the thinking went, the tech sector will suffer a sales slowdown but not an actual decline. However, market watchers are hedging their bets, revising expectations and in some sectors of the tech industry, such as PC and mobile devices revenue, forecasting global declines. Tech companies are cutting revenue forecasts and their share prices have sunk to levels almost as low as during the dot-com bust. Forrester Research in December slashed its forecast for overall U.S. purchases of IT goods and services from 6.1 percent to 1.6 percent growth in 2009. Market analysts are still saying that 2009 will end up in positive territory for tech overall because the recession is expected to end after another quarter or two. But if that does not happen, look for some vendors to go the way of the now-defunct investment banks.

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