The Wired 40 - The Most Innovative Companies of the World

What is important about these companies is that they are usually the reasons why many trends exist.  It is due to their creativity, innovation and risk that differentiates themselves from the status quo and puts them in a league of their own. 

It’s not surprising that Google is ranked number 1.  However, when you look down the list, one can truly appreciate which companies are truly making a difference and why they are market leaders.

Here’s an excerpt of the Top 5 (visit Wired for the full list):

1 Google
The masters of the universe are busily converting ad dollars into a global network of fiber lines and data centers. A plan etary computer crunching ever- larger mountains of bits is an invention of historic import. Google’s power to inspire both awe and fear continues to grow.

2 Apple
Tired: MP3 players. Wired: mobile handsets! And why not? Especially if the Apple crew can stuff most of a Mac into a futuristic gadget straight out of Minority Report. Cell phone + iPod + social networking = marketer’s dream.

3 Genentech
When you target specific biological mechanisms, your drugs can sidestep the one-disease rut: Avastin has been OK’d for a growing list of cancers. And since 20 new drugs are set to enter the pipeline by 2010, the chances for more multiple hits are good.

4 Samsung
Mobile handsets have joined PCs as the focus of some of high tech’s most brutal slugfests. Samsung’s upmarket strategy protects margins - a tactic it has been using to batter Sony in home theater and camcorders. Too bad about that iPhone.

5 News Corp.
Why fly capital-sucking TV satellites when you’ve got 90 million MySpacers glued to their screens? King Rupert is feeding the greatest frenzy of media populism since the birth of the tabloid press. Now he needs to convert it into broadcast-style revenue.