Apple: Top 5 events from 2012

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Apple spent 2012 much like it did the year before: relentlessly pushing out new products. But that's nothing new.

Instead, tech historians will likely look back at 2012 as one of the company's most transformative years. A time where we saw some of the first pieces of a post-Jobs Apple begin to take shape.

Five key news events marked Apple's 2012, from products to company controversy.

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of stories chronicling the top five events during 2012 for a handful of major technology companies, and technology categories. In the coming days CNET will also recap major events for Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, and others.

(Credit: Sketches by Vicki Behringer)

1. Apple v. Samsung What's more interesting than watching rivals duke it out? When they're also multibillion-dollar-a-year business partners with one another, as was the case between Apple and Samsung.

This legal war began in 2011 when Apple sued the South Korean technology giant. But 2012 was the banner year for the fight as those lawsuits went to trial in a Northern California court.

The three-week-long trial provided hours upon hours of test... [Read more]