Hi-Tech personalities: The winners and losers of 2011

We’ve reached the end of 2011 – and it’s time to look back on the winners and losers of the year. Those who made our gadget life more awesome, and those that ruined it for everyone. Those that rock, and those that suck. So, without further ado, Gearburn’s Geared and Burned personalities of 2011.

Burned

Leo Apotheker of HP
He was bounced out of HP in disgrace, consoled only by the $25-million payout he trousered for less than a year’s work (a healthy wedge of the US$84-million HP has paid to revolving door chief execs in the past six years), but not before he’d kicked a massive hole in HP’s PC business pipeline by announcing that HP would follow IBM’s lead and get out of making personal computers. He also over-paid for a software business acquisition (Autonomy), and spent a fortune buying Palm, launching the TouchPad tablet, then killing the lot – costing HP US$3.3-billion. Thank goodness Meg Whitman restored sanity.