#4 Facebook, Foursquare and Flipboard for Windows 8

One of the major drawbacks of Windows 8 was the lack of apps. At Microsoft’s Build developer conference, Steve Ballmer announced that Windows 8 would be acquiring the services of the big Fs; Facebook, Foursquare and Flipboard. And rightly so, it happened. Facebook’s Windows 8 app made use of the wide screen that many of the Windows tablets had, the new Foursquare app re-invented the location service as a powerful discovery engine and Flipboard brought with it a unique live tile interface.

#5 Steve Ballmer Steps Down

In the summer of this year, Ballmer announced he will be retiring in the next 12 months depending on when a suitable successor is found. This announcement came barely one month after Ballmer led a major reorganization of the company in an attempt to bring all the divisions under one unified vision. The rumor mills say, Ballmer’s exit was already planned and Surface RT’s failure only made it worse and accelerated this process. The hunt is now on to find his replacement, with former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and Ford's Alan Mulally supposedly leading the pack. It is said that a new CEO will be named before the end of the year.