Technology awards tend to be real yawners because there are so
many.

But there’s one annual competition I love because the winners in
over two dozen tech categories are chosen by popular vote of small
business tech buyers themselves. In other words, the folks who use
the stuff day-to-day under real business conditions are naming the
hardware, software, e-commerce services and security products that
they think have performed best.

And when it comes to recommending a product or service for your
business, there’s no better source than another small business.

Voters in the 2008 Excellence in Technology Awards run by
SmallBusinessComputing.com continue to back perennial small business
winners such as Dell, Symantec, HP, Intuit and Microsoft. But Apple
has seen a surge of popularity, gaining hearts, minds and market-
share among small business and earning top honors in two categories
for the first time.

Here are some of the key results:

Desktop PC: Despite the move to more mobility, desktop computers
are still the main small business workhorse, and Dell remains the
most popular brand for the fifth straight year. This time it was
Dell’s Optiplex 755 in the winner’s circle. This powerful but power-
saving new line of PCs meets Energy Star standards and starts at
around $800. Runner-up was the HP Compaq dc5750.

Notebook PC: The sleek and powerful MacBook Pro surged to the top
for the first time, as business users embraced its speed and
versatility. The Apple entry grabbed 53percent of the votes to run
away with the award. In second place, with 16 percent of the votes,
is the HP Compaq 6820s.

Printers and multi-function devices: HP rules the printer and
multi-function categories with an iron fist. For color printers, HP
took top honors in a landslide with its Officejet Pro K5400dtn
model. Tied for runner-up were the Brother HL-4070CDW and Xerox
Phaser 8860. HP also earned both top places for black and white
printers, with its LaserJet P1505n (first…