Top 10 tech shocks of 2011

Well, what a year it's been. When 2011 rolled around there was no way anyone could have predicted quite how much of a rollercoaster ride it was.

We've seen unlikely acquisitions and alliances, untold legal battles, firms going through huge management upheavals, governments fall, and we've lost one of the greatest innovators the industry has known.

So sit back and enjoy our rundown of the events that most shocked the technology world this year.

10. The ongoing legal wars
If anyone did well out of 2011 it was the lawyers. Some of the wealthiest companies on the planet went at it in courts across the world, and the lawyers certainly weren't short of work to keep them busy.

Apple and Samsung spent the entire year at each other's throats, while Nokia took Apple for some $420m and Motorola chipped in to take Apple down a peg or two.

Meanwhile, Google found itself at the centre of an epic legal battle with Oracle while its Android operating system was being hacked to pieces by Apple and Microsoft.

In retaliation, Google made a somewhat shock purchase of Motorola for $12.5bn seemingly calculated to stem the flow of lawsuits against Android.

Few of these cases were resolved in 2011, and there can be little doubt that this is an issue affecting the technology industry's largest firms that will run and run.