Readers' Choice Awards Winners 2012 - The Best of the Best in 8 Mac Categories

It's time to announce the winners in the Readers' Choice Awards 2012. The awards are given every year to the best of the best in various categories across the entire About.com site, ranging from automotive to travel.

About: Macs hosted eight categories, including one that was new this year: Best Mac Peripheral Reseller. The nominees in each category were selected by About: Macs readers in a nomination phase that occurred earlier this year.

Once About: Macs readers nominated their favorite products or services, the top contenders in each category moved on to the voting phase. Voting has now closed, and it's time to announce the winners in each of the eight About: Macs categories.

About: Macs Readers' Choice Awards 2012 Categories

Best Mac System Utility

Best Mac Backup Application

Best Mac Browser

Best Mac Application for Running Windows

Best Mac Word Processor

Best Mac Image Editor

Best Mac Home Theater Application or Product

Best Mac Peripheral Reseller

Readers' Choice Awards 2012: Best Mac System Utility - CleanMyMac

And the winner is (where's the intern with the envelope?): CleanMyMac from MacPaw.

This is the second winning year in a row for CleanMyMac, which snared 40% of the vote this year after a close race with 1Password. The two apps exchanged leads a few times in the polling, but down the stretch, CleanMyMac took the lead and hung on.

CleanMyMac is a handy application for removing applications and the files they tend to leave behind.

By cleaning up the debris from your Mac's drive, you can gain additional storage and give your Mac plenty of room to work in.

CleanMyMac 40%

1Password 30%

DiskWarrior 13%

TechTool Pro 9%

Little Snitch 6%

Note: Due to rounding errors, voting percentages may not total 100%.

Readers' Choice Awards 2012: Best Mac Backup Application - Carbon Copy Cloner

Carbon Copy Cloner from Bombich Software won the Best Mac Backup Application category for the third straight year. We are beginning to think of it as a dynasty around here. And why not? Not only is Carbon Copy Cloner a readers' favorite, it's also easy to use, and provides peace of mind, knowing that you have a ready-to-use clone of your Mac's startup drive.

Carbon Copy Cloner captured 46% of the vote.

The rest of the votes were divided primarily between two very popular top contenders: SuperDuper and Apple's Time Machine.

Carbon Copy Cloner 46%

Time Machine 29%

SuperDuper 23%

CopyCatX 1%

Tri-Backup 1 %

Note: Due to rounding errors, voting percentages may not total 100%.

Readers' Choice Awards 2012: Best Mac Browser - Safari

Safari took top honors once again in the Mac Browser category, with 48% of the vote. Unlike previous years, where the Mac Browser category wasn't decided until the last day of voting, this year, Safari took an early lead and never looked back.

Safari 48%

Firefox 28%

Chrome 17%

Camino 4%

Stainless 1%

Note: Due to rounding errors, voting percentages may not total 100%.

Readers' Choice Awards 2012: Best App for Running Windows - Parallels Desktop

Parallels Desktop for Mac won for the second year in a row, sweeping the category with 72% of the vote. While this category specifically mentions running Windows, Parallels, and most of the other contenders, can run a wide variety of OSes on a Mac.

Parallels Desktop for Mac 72%

VMware Fusion 15%

Boot Camp 7%

Oracle Virtual Box 4%

Note: Due to rounding errors, voting percentages may not total 100%.

Readers' Choice Awards 2012: Best Mac Word Processor - Pages

The Mac Word Processor category was hotly contested this year, with less than four percentage points separating the top three contenders. Apple's Pages managed to prevail with 31% of the vote, edging out Nisus Writer Pro, which took second place and 28% of the vote.

Pages 31%

Nisus Writer Pro 28%

Microsoft Word 27%

Mariner Write 9%

Bean 3%

Note: Due to rounding errors, voting percentages may not total 100%.

Readers' Choice Awards 2012: Best Mac Image Editor - Photoshop CS5

For the first time, Photoshop CS5 took top honors in the Best Mac Image Editor category.

Photoshop CS5 won with 55% of the vote, but it was a tight race during the first three weeks of voting, with the top three contenders staying close together. Photoshop CS5 pulled ahead during the last week of voting, however, and easily won the race.

Photoshop CS5 55%

Pixelmator 21%

Photoshop Elements 17%

Acorn 3%

Image Tricks 2%

Note: Due to rounding errors, voting percentages may not total 100%.

Plex took the win once again, marking two years in a row for this versatile media center application. Plex stole the lead from the Apple TV in the last few days of voting, and just kept piling up the votes.

With two wins in as many years, this may be the beginning of another Readers' Choice Awards dynasty.

Plex 56%

Apple TV 22%

EyeTV 8%

Netflix Streaming 7%

Mac mini 5%

Note: Due to rounding errors, voting percentages may not total 100%.

Other World Computing swept the Best Mac Peripheral Reseller category, a new category this year. What started as a heated competition between Other World Computing and Small Dog Electronics quickly turned into an out-and-out rout.

Other World Computing won with 92% of the vote, with most of the votes coming in the latter half of the polling period.

Other World Computing 92%

Small Dog Electronics 6%

New Egg 1%

Best Buy 1%

Note: Due to rounding errors, voting percentages may not total 100%.