Nine tech turkeys for 2010

Google sees itself as a bastion of all things progressive and righteous, but the company has spent much of this year embroiled in controversy over its Google Street View cars and data gathering practices.

Google has apologised profusely and vowed to change its Street View data collection practices, but the whole issue has become a lasting black eye for the search firm. Street View cars have long been the target of scorn in many countries, but at this point Google may have to equip them with protective glass to keep privacy advocates from dispensing vigilante justice.

Microsoft in 2008 spent $US500 million to acquire Danger, a promising startup that designed the T-Mobile Sidekick. It was a bold move for a company that found itself falling behind in the mobile market, but the eventual fruits of that deal -- Microsoft's Kin One and Kin Two devices -- weren't appealing to customers, and Microsoft discontinued production in July, just two months after launch.

At CES 2010, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer showed off, if rather briefly, three prototype HP tablet devices running Windows 7. There was no mention of when these tablets -- which Ballmer described as "slates" -- would arrive, but the message that Microsoft and HP intended to compete in this space was clearly sent at a time when everyone was waiting for Apple's iPad to arrive.

That was before HP bought Palm for $US1.2 billion and embarked on its own separate, non-Microsoft affiliated tablet direction with webOS.

HP in October HP finally launched its Windows 7-powered HP Slate 500.

In April, McAfee issued a faulty antivirus update that flagged Windows XP Service Pack 3 as malware and sent tens of thousands of customers' PCs into an endless reboot loop.

McAfee initially tried to downplay the severity of the issue, claiming it affected just 0.5 percent of its enterprise customers. But after customers didn't go for that explanation, McAfee quickly revised that to "small percentage" and offered an apology that had been missing in its first statement on the matter. Later, McAfee got creative and enlisted the aid of channel partners to assist with customer remediation. It takes a special brand of resourcefulness to spin a technical disaster as a channel win, and McAfee deserves credit for pulling it off.

Many Cisco partners believe the company did a poor job communicating the extent of the supply chain crisis that has wreaked havoc on the channel for much of this year. VARs understand that many of the factors were beyond Cisco's control, such as component shortages from Asian suppliers and the wildly unpredictable IT spending environment.

Still, many expected better communication from a company that historically been very channel friendly.

A series of well-publicised privacy blunders has put Facebook in the crosshairs of public scorn for much of this year, and the fact that Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg has been drifting toward Scott McNealy territory by claiming online privacy is no longer the "social norm" hasn't helped matters.

Facebook users were apoplectic with anger when the social networking site rolled out its "Instant Personalisation" feature in April. Facebook subsequently overhauled its privacy settings and proffered an olive branch to the enraged, torch-wielding masses. Facebook has also added technical measures to the site designed to plug privacy loopholes. But this hasn't quelled the criticisms against the company.

First off, the Galaxy Tab is expensive, battery life is also unimpressive, which is surprising since the Galaxy Tab has a 7-inch screen.

Samsung's tablet also can't be charged via USB, but requires an AC adaptor. Android Marketplace also can't hold a candle to Apple's App Store in terms of the breadth and quantity of mobile apps on offer. None of these are deal-breakers on their own, but the Galaxy Tab will have to get a lot better in its second iteration.

Apple's response to the antenna issues that hit iPhone 4 users soon after the device's launch was a case study in crotchety customer service. When iPhone 4 owners started complaining about dropped calls and degraded connectivity while gripping their devices a certain way, Apple's response was, essentially: 'Well, don't grip it that way, geniuses!'

Apple then claimed that other mobile devices suffer from the same issue, known as attenuation, but that generated a predictable angry response from Apple's competitors. Only when Apple's shares started dropping and Consumer Reports withdrew its recommendation of the iPhone 4 did Apple grudgingly start responding to customers without haughty contempt.

Oracle has spent much of the year entangled in drama of its own creation. Since acquiring Sun Microsystems in January, Oracle has pulled the plug on OpenSolaris and sued Google for infringing on its Java patents in Android. However, these were business decisions and no one could fault Oracle for playing to win, particularly since Oracle has managed to turn Sun's hardware operations into a profitable business.

Oracle's mention as a tech turkey has more to do with its petulant and public squabbling with HP, which has now extended into cloak-and-dagger territory. The bottom line: This sort of tumult isn't good for business.