Gadgetory

welcome to top 5 where we countdown things I'm your host is act time if you pay attention to sites like C net you stay well informed and know what's going on in the tech world you think you know how everything will turn out that's not always the case sometimes the unexpected happens today we're counting down the top 5 surprise tech hits at number 5 netbooks remember these things for a short while netbooks were all the rage the Isuzu EPC uh sure did in the netbook age these laptops could do little more than browse the web hence the name some had tiny screens the most important thing about netbooks was the price they were super cheap sure these computers couldn't do much but who could complain when these laptops cost a few hundred bucks netbooks eventually died out thanks to better phones and tablets at number four is the Apple iPod $400 for a music player you're out of your mind Apple out of your mind the music player market was well established in 2001 I'm not talking about the digital music player market I'm talking about the music player market Sony was one of the leaders in the field digital music players were using solid-state memory like your phone does and could hold a handful of songs Apple used a tiny 1.8 inch spinning hard drive for its five gigabyte iPod claiming it could hold about a thousand songs in your pocket analysts didn't think the iPod could have legs since it was a Mac only product at the time eventually Apple open up the iPod to Windows users and together with the iTunes music store put together quite the powerhouse at number three the Nintendo Wii how often do we connect Nintendo is down for the count a lot we thought the same thing back on the Nintendo Wii was introduced Microsoft and Sony were running the show Nintendo decided it wasn't gonna play by their rules by going with motion control in the Nintendo Wii the graphics were less than amazing the specs on the hard work weren't spectacular but the gameplay was flat-out funny the Nintendo Wii was very difficult to purchase at lunch because it was the it product these days Nintendo's down for the count right they can't ever come back right right at number two the Apple iPad when the iPad was introduced tablets already existed had largely failed why on earth would have succeed now reaction city iPad's introduction would mix as well why would anyone want to use a big ipod touch why would anyone want to use one of these things also what about that new name great questions people the iPad became a huge hit for Apple iPads outsold Macs and Apple reinvented the tablet market larger phones seem to be eaten away tablet sales but that's probably why Apple introduced the iPad pro at number one the Samsung Galaxy Notes when the original Samsung Galaxy Note was introduced it was described to have an absolutely gigantic screen 5.3 inches that's it insane well it was insane in 2011 that was really unusual it also included a stylus which seemed like an odd choice at the time Samsung often ridiculed as lacking in creativity made something different with the note it was unlike all other phones in the market its large size put it in the space between phones and tablets so what does Samsung do it sold 10 million units in nine months huge phone huge hit and there you go the top 5 surprise tech kids what's that I can almost hear you yelling at the screen first stop this is innlive I can't really hear you second let me know what you think on Twitter I'm a daya's for more top fives like this visit top-5 dot cnet.com thanks for watching and we'll see you next time