2012 Year in Review: Top 10 products

8) Apple iPad 3

Although it's since been superseded by the fourth generation, the iPad 3 was the first of Apple's tablet to packs the critically acclaimed Retina Display that's 2048 x 1536 pixels or 264 pixels per inch. The result was incredible clarity for text and images.

Apple iPad 3

In terms of raw performance, the device clocked a A5X 1GHz dual-core processor, and also packed support for 4G. But it's the quality of the display and the apps which still make it one of the best devices around.

7) Microsoft Office 2013

Available as a preview Microsoft Office 2013 so us what to expect when the full product is launched early in 2013.

It's the best version of the popular content creation suite to date. Key features have been added to all the major programs such as Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint. There's a clear emphasis on allowing users to create high-quality content, which Microsoft loading up the programs with vast numbers of templates.

Office

Simple changes such to Word include the inclusion of an ultra-responsive cursor, the ability to embed videos and the raft of downloadable templates. We particularly love the Inline Replies feature in Outlook, so we don't end up having dozens of boxes popping being left open at the end of the day..

Meanwhile, the Presenter View feature in PowerPoint includes a number of key features to allow users to improve the delivery of keynotes. And Flashfill is an intelligent pattern recognition algorithm introduced in Excel, which will save users time as it automatically applies a rules to an entire row/column.

Khidr Suleman is the Technical Editor at IT Pro, a role he has fulfilled since March 2012. He is responsible for the reviews section on the site  - so get in touch if you have a product you think might be of interest to the business world. He also covers the hardware and operating systems beats. Prior to joining IT Pro, Khidr worked as a reporter at Incisive Media. He studied law at the University of Reading and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism and Online Writing at PMA Training.