Winners and Losers of 2011

When it comes to the business winners and losers of 2011 the runners and riders are dominated by tech companies. So who did back flips and ran round the park with their shirt pulled over their head and who got the wooden spoon?

Winner: Apple

Despite the passing of Steve Jobs, Apple seems to go from strength to strength. In 1985 the company was close to collapse, but at one stage last year it became the world’s most valuable corporation. It’s smartphones took just under half of the market share but way more of the sector’s profits. Where most tech companies adopt the pile ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap ethic, Apple products sell at premium prices and they reap the rewards. And let’s not forget the iPad, a device that nobody was sure the public wanted or needed, nearly 50 million have now been welcomed into homes and offices.

Loser: Blackberry

Research in Motion (RIM), the Canadian firm that manufactures Blackberry smartphones provided a gift for headline writers when their handsets failed to work for days on end.

As the Blackberry crumbled or entered a black hole their customers vented their frustration on Twitter: ‘You realise that sending a letter in a bottle and putting it in the Thames is more reliable than a BlackBerry’ tweeted one irate user and almost inevitably: ‘What did one BlackBerry user say to the other BlackBerry user? Nothing.’

The blackout couldn’t have come at a worse time for RIM, which has lost market share to other smart phone rivals, particularly the iPhone and the various Android handsets. Their response seemed slow and lacklustre and led to the company's stock dropping 20% (£1.9bn) in value.

Winner: Amazon

Many people don’t want to do battle with high street crowds and are more than happy to shop on-line with Amazon, the retailer of choice. Prices are often cheaper when there’s less brick and mortar to support. One of their prime products is their Kindle e-reader. The company said ‘gifting’ of Kindle books between November 25 and Christmas Day rose 175% compared to the same time last year with Christmas Day the biggest day ever for Kindle book downloads. Amazon is fast becoming the Wal-Mart of cyberspace, selling anything from clothes to guitars, and there’s no doubt the high street is suffering.

Loser: Nokia

Nokia once dominated the mobile phone market. Their products were easy to use, stylish and often the phone of choice. When Apple launched the iPhone it was assumed that it would be a niche item appealing to nerds and techies and have little impact on the giant Nokia. How wrong that proved to be and this year Microsoft snaffled them up. How the mighty are fallen. Nokia still continues to sell many phones but at the cheap end of the market where profits are scarce. Smartphones are where the growth and money lie and Nokia can’t seem to come up with the right gadgets to crack that market.

Winner: Facebook

Facebook started 2011 with 500 million users and ends it with more than 750 million. One in thirteen people on the planet are now signed up. It’s thought that if the company was floated on the stock market it could be worth upwards of $100bn, not bad for a skinny kid from Harvard.

Loser: Hewlett-Packard

Like Nokia, H-P was once a blue chip company that could do no wrong - then came the Tablet wars. Their TouchPad tablet was one of this year's most anticipated gadgets, a possible iPad killer. Instead, the upstart tablet was one of 2011's biggest tech disasters. It was on the market for just seven weeks before being pulled due to abysmal sales. In August they confirmed plans to stop making PCs and phones, to concentrate on software.