Boston Consulting Group polled 940 senior executives in 68 countries for their 2005 Top 20 Innovative Companies in the World survey.
Apple Computer placed first by a resounding margin with more than double the responses of the number two company, 3M.
Apple received 24.84% of the responses (3M had 11.77%). Of Apple, the chart in BusinessWeek reads, “Delivers great consumer experiences with outstanding design; steady flow of new ideas that redefine old categories, such as music players; continual evolution of business model and brand.”
BusinessWeek had published the full Top 20 list here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Dell CEO: Apple can’t just have one product and then say they’re the innovative leader of the world – February 22, 2005
It’s about time that Apple’s name should be at the top for inovation. They have only been doing it for the last 25 years.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
Of course, Microsoft is #3. “Strong management.” Sigh…
(The appropriate magic word is “business.”)
First post.
Tell me something I don’t already know>
Apple Computer the world’s most innovative company.
I am shocked!!
How can you trust a survey that has Microsoft at #3 and Dell at #6, both ahead of Google at #8? Honestly, Microsoft and Dell haven’t innovated a single thing in their entire company histories. Google innovated just a few days ago with the release of Google Moon (moon.google.com).
Hey, stop doubting this survey. It says Apple is number one, nothing else matters, certainly not the fact that M$ is number 3, ahead of other, certainly more innovative companies.
This survey is reliable, because it has Apple at number one, capice?
3M is more innovative than IBM or Sarnoff Corporation (the company that invented motion estimation, color TV, the laser…)??? Oy.
Microsoft did innovate a few minor things to make computing a little bit easier, like the optical mouse.
Honestly, we don’t need fanboi’s like Moe who like to trash for the sake of bias.
Of course, Microsoft is #3. “Strong management.” Sigh…
(The appropriate magic word is “business.”)
SINCE WHEN HAS STRONG MANAGEMENT BEEN CRUCIAL TO INNOVATION??
So, then Leonardo Da Vinci or Picasso would not have done theyre amazing stuff without a Manager on their back?
Absolute crap – innovation comes from ‘inside’ people and NOT because a boss says ‘lets create and innovative product’.
Call it natural talent, skill, expertise, ‘feel’ or whatever – you are either talented to be innovative or your not.
Apple are innovative out of pure total neccessity – if they didn’t have the talent, culture, expertise or whatever they would have gone under in the 90s.
Apple innovates to stay in business!
Microsoft ARE NOT INNOVATIVE.
“Google innovated just a few days ago with the release of Google Moon (moon.google.com).’
Google has a sense of humor, zoom all the way in and you get cheese. http://moon.google.com/
And Intel has the “ability to disrupt itself” Ooooo, that’s a good one!
Don’t forget it is a list based on asking CEO’s their OPINION. I’m sure they would love to work at Apple, and fear they might end up at M$ so they rate M$ high to kiss *ss.
Actually Dell is incredibly innovative, just not in design. Their innovations are in the area of manufacture and distribution. That’s how they can make money off such a low-margin product.
Regarding management – some companies succeed despite their management, simply b/c they do have excellent, devoted employees who know what the !@#% they’re doing when their managers don’t.
To Dick van Dick:
Actually Microsoft did not innovate the optical mouse, that was Steve Kirsch of Mouse Systems:
http://skirsch.com/misc/stklife.html
So try again. Name one thing that Microsoft has truly innovated. That is, something it invented that had never been invented before. Something original and revolutionary, like Exposé, or the trash can, or the clipboard, or pull down menus, or drag and drop of files. (Microsoft Bob doesn’t count, because it was terrible). And if you think Xerox had these things first, you’re wrong:
http://www.mackido.com/Interface/ui_horn1.html
Steve Kirsch’s optical mouse required a special metal pad with ordered grids, as did all early optical mice.
Microsoft was the first company to release the optical mouse requiring NO pad and operable on ANY surface without even a regular rubber pad. This was the point where optical mice became mainstream and all other mouse makers followed suit.
So now YOU try again, Moe.
…When Microsoft released the first optical mouse without a special pad, the company became a trendsetter for a while in mouse-building. As it often happens, the innovation was replicated by all mouse makers ….
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/ms-omouse-blue/
“Name one thing that Microsoft has truly innovated. That is, something it invented that had never been invented before. Something original and revolutionary,”
One immediately comes to mind…..Direct X. Completely revolutionized multimedia where hardware manufactures work hand in hand with Microsoft to develop next generation hardware and featureset. Pixel shader 1.1 to 2.0, and Smart Shader 3 for example. Currently only Nvidia supports SM3, since ATI has some trouble getting R520 out the door in time. Both companies have hardware to support upcoming WGF 1.0 (or DirectX 10) specifications.
“Microsoft was the first company to release the optical mouse requiring NO pad and operable on ANY surface without even a regular rubber pad. This was the point where optical mice became mainstream and all other mouse makers followed suit.”
Ok, that’s fine. But that doesn’t mean Microsoft innovated the optical mouse. That would be like saying Apple innovated the GUI. They didn’t; it was Xerox that did that. Apple instead made improvements on the GUI that took it mainstream. Some of those improvements were indeed innovative (like the trash can, etc.) So I can therefore say that Apple innovated the trash can. But I cannot say that Apple innovated the GUI. Similarly, you cannot say that Microsoft innovated the optical mouse.
As for DirectX, wow, I wonder where they got that idea. OpenGL was created 3 years before DirectX.
You really don’t wanna give Microsoft any due, do you? Microsoft’s optical mouse was a small, turning point innovation that is widely recognized, as any historic synopsis of the optical mouse shows. This wasnt the same optical mouse designed by Kirsch….which was slow, required a reflective metal pad with blue/grey gridlines, and an external power source. Microsoft introduced a much more advanced solution that depended not on simple colored line detection, but a much more sophisticated photographic optical system that was so accurate, it could detect movement on almost ANY surface.
The technical achievement awards Microsoft received in 1999 & 2000 speak for themselves. I’m sure if it were Apple that redesigned the original optical mouse into something far more practical, your tune would be different. You’re all alone in this biased world of yours, Moe.
And its obvious you know nothing about DirectX. OpenGL has absolutely nothing to do with DirectX, nor has OpenGL been a foundation for DirectX itself. Your two line response explains your lack of knowledge in this area quite decisively.
In its early stages, OpenGl had been a good alternative to Direct3D. However, since DirectX 7.0, OpenGL had fallen behind in functionality and supported features, requiring graphic chip makers to write their own vendor specific extensions. Microsoft’s API went to another level with the introduction of complex shaders in DX8. Since then, graphic chip designers have working hand in hand with Microsoft to develop specifications for future DX generations and specifically design the hardware to support it (as was the case for Pixel Shader 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.3, 2.0, 3.0, Vertex Shader 1.0 & 2.0).
Yeah, I guess you’re right Dick van Dick. I’m ignorant and I got pwned because of it. I must admit Microsoft is “teh pwnage.”
And it’s true, my loyalty to Apple did blind me to the contributions that others have made to the computing world, including Microsoft. I always thought they didn’t innovate, but I guess they have, although maybe not as much as Apple. I also admit that Dell did innovate the low cost computer, and I suppose it’s good that they did. I’d rather it be that anyone can afford a computer, even if it runs Windows, than have only the people who are well off be able to afford one.