TUAW Best of 2012 Awards: iPhone products
The votes have been tallied, and TUAW is proud to present the Best of 2012 Awards for iPhone products. These products, both hardware and software, represent the choices of TUAW readers in various categories.
We're still working on the posts for iPad and Mac products, which will be published over the next few days. And now, the envelopes please...
Best iPhone Game App of 2012
In this all-important category, one game flew higher than them all and came in with close to 47 percent of the votes: Angry Birds Star Wars ($0.99). Coming in a distant runner-up with 14 percent of the votes was my personal favorite game of 2012, Letterpress (free, with $0.99 upgrade).
Best iPhone Music App of 2012
Apple occasionally hits a home run with its in-house apps, and in the music app category, GarageBand ($4.99) was the choice of over a third of all voters. The runner-up was Pandora Radio (free) with 27 percent of the tally.
Best iPhone Navigation App of 2012
That didn't take long -- the new Google Maps app (free) only arrived on December 12, but it won the Best iPhone Navigation App of 2012 award with almost half of the votes tallied. A big hooray to Apple Maps, though, for coming in as the runner-up with 20 percent of the votes.
Best iPhone Photo App of 2012
Congratulations to Camera+ (on sale for $0.99) for winning the 2012 kudos after coming in as the runner-up in 2011. Camera+ kicked some shutter butt, grabbing 48 percent of the vote. Despite widespread concerns about recent changes in the free Instagram app terms and conditions, the social photo app came in second place with almost a quarter of the vote.
Best iPhone Productivity App of 2012
When it comes to getting work done, TUAW readers had one overwhelming favorite iPhone tool -- Dropbox (free). The app and service walked away with 61 percent of the vote, with the runner-up Evernote at distant 23.8 percent.
Best iPhone Social Networking App of 2012
People "liked" the free Facebook app for iPhone, voting it in as the top iPhone social networking app of 2012 with over a third of the votes tallied. A surprising 23 percent of voters picked free "bump iPhones to exchange stuff" app Bump as the runner-up.
Best iPhone Utility App of 2012
With well over half of the votes in this category, password manager 1Password ($7.99) was re-elected as the top iPhone utility app. Apple's Find My iPhone app also reprised its runner-up award from 2011 with almost 42 percent of the vote.
Best iPhone Video App of 2012
In this category, Apple's $4.99 iMovie app narrowly edged out the free YouTube app as the favorite video app of 2012. How close was it? The margin of difference was a scant 8 votes.
Best iPhone Case of 2012
This is a huge category, with literally hundreds of iPhone cases on the market. However, a handful of cases stood out enough to make it to the final vote, and of that hallowed few, one case manufacturer stood out. LifeProof's cases for iPhones killed the competition by grabbing 44 percent of the vote. There were two runners-up with exactly the same 20.2 percent vote tally -- Mophie's Juice Pack battery pack cases and Otterbox's Commuter Series.
The results for the case category were fascinating, showing that iPhone owners seem to value protection over style.
Best iPhone Accessory of 2012
Should we be surprised that Apple is the manufacturer of the top iPhone accessory of 2012? Almost 61 percent of all TUAW readers voting in the Best of 2012 awards picked Apple's Lightning to 30-pin adapter ($29.00) as the best iPhone accessory. My personal guess is that it was the most needed accessory for iPhone aficionados.
The runner-up has a loyal following: Jawbone's Jambox ($179.95 and up) wireless speaker picked up almost a quarter of the votes in the accessory category.
Many thanks to all of the TUAW readers who took the time to nominate and vote for their favorite products for iPhone.
