“What makes a company wired? We start by looking for the basics: strategic vision, global reach, killer technology. But that’s not enough. To land a spot on our annual Wired 40 list, a business also needs the X-factor – a hunger for new ideas and an impatience to put them into practice. Such companies inevitably become trendsetters, literally: As we debated and redebated the list this year, six major themes flickered into view. From the rise of peer production to the end of carbon pollution, they tell us where the world is heading. These are the companies leading the way,” Spencer Reiss writes for Wired.
Highlights and lowlights:
01. Google (2005 Rank: 02): Less cuddly but more profitable than ever, the monster from Mountain View has rivals but no peers. Is it a search engine? A media company? A software provider? Who cares? Microsoft, for one. Get ready for the grudge match of the decade.
02. Apple (2005 Rank: 01): In the drama of Apple’s resurgence, act one was forging the iTunes/iPod axis. Act two was bundling the iLife suite of creative tools with new computers. Adapting the Mac OS to run Windows apps natively would make a triumphant conclusion.
24. Intel (2005 Rank: 19): Four out of five PCs ship with Intel inside, and now the company’s CPUs are even in Macs. But cheaper, cooler chips from AMD have the mothership of hardware spooked. CEO Paul Otellini’s damage control: overclock R&D and leapfrog a generation of processors.
36. Microsoft (2005 Rank: 28): The desktop OS gold mine won’t last forever. What’s next? Redmond’s latest to-do list includes software-as-service, security, even VoIP. Or it could simply buy a piece of Yahoo. (Take that, Google!)
A sample of which companies that fell off Wired’s list:
Dell (2005 Rank #16): An ongoing slump in PC sales and consequent cost reductions have left this retailer with nothing left to cut.
Pixar (2005 Rank #12): Digital animation’s guiding light is now a division of Disney. Here’s hoping CEO Bob Iger doesn’t wreck it.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Beverly Martin” for the heads up.]
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Related articles:
Apple Computer tops The 2005 Wired 40 list of companies leading tech innovation – April 25, 2005
The Wired 40: Apple Computer ‘the new face of consumer electronics’ rockets from nowhere to number 3 – May 21, 2004
Reading the requirements in the opening para makes me wonder how Microsoft ever got on the list in the first place.
Dirty Pierre le Punk, they probably strong-armed someone in the Wired office. That’s how they usually get their way.
Punk:
Don’t be stupid. “Global reach” is one criterion that applies to Microsoft, albeit the only one.
no amd either
“Global reach” is one criterion that applies to Microsoft”
– Maczealot
“But that’s not enough. To land a spot on our annual Wired 40 list, a business also needs the X-factor – a hunger for new ideas and an impatience to put them into practice”
– Wired
I would have thought they would have mentioned the switch to intel processors and getting out so much new hardware would have been one of the factors for Apple as well.
John,
The Intel switch was good for Apple, but not
necessarily: strategic vision, global reach,
killer technology. They were just doing what had
to be done, not exactly cunning strategy.
An interesting exchange between a co-worker and myself yesterday:
Coworker: (seeing me reading MDN’s website) “Do you have a Mac?”
Me: “Yes”
Coworker: “I was thinking about buying a Mac last year when my Dell died.”
Me: “Did you?”
Coworker: “No. I bought another Dell, but it died after nine months. That was a few months ago.”
Me: “Did you buy a Mac then?”
Coworker: “No. I bought another Dell.”
Me: (blank look on my face) “Really! If you bought a car and it died after 9 months, would you buy another car from the same company?”
Coworker: (blank look on his face) “Uhhhhh…..No, I don’t think so…….I should of bought a Mac.”
True story. The tide is turning folks!
Dell fell off the list because, well, making a PC cheap is just not that innovative anymore.
Inexpensive PCs that totally rock is where the market is heading. Tiny, powerful, easy to use, accessible price, Macmini has got it all!
Heidi, the MacMini has everything except sales volume.
Also, you forgot, Dells in a sales slump because their PCs are just BUTT UGLY!
Google? its a freakin search engine…hoop te do.
Umm…M$ does have the X-factor. They impatiently wait for Apple to come up with new ideas so they can change the names and put their half a$$ed copies into place immediately to the masses.
Google is more than just a search engine. Why don’t you look at their products before making a lame comment. I don’t work for them, I don’t own stock. But I do use gmail, calendar, talk and others. Check out this link: http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/
Also click on Labs link for stuff that they are working on currently.
The exclusion of myspace and other social networking sites on this list is interesting.
Google will forever be known for its search engine, but other than that, I don’t think it has Killer Apps nor Killer Hardware.
Quad G5s, iPods, ITMS, Bootcamp, OS X, Final Cut Studio, etc, Apple has literally changed the technology game with innovation AND with the iPod, changed our modern culture as we know it.
Remember, Intel has Quad Dual Cores waiting, but guess which company will probably be the only one to sell it ? Imagine having a consumer computer which can be bought almost anywhere in America (at an Apple store) that has 8 processors running at probably 2 Ghz each, to run your $500 copy of Shake 4.1. Apple has the technology games as its slave. It is No question number #1, Wired droppped the ball on this.
Punk:
I see no conjunction in the opening paragraph. Do you know what a conjunction is?
What is an X-factor anyhow, some subjective criterion that defies human explanation? Wired, eh? Yeah, somebody’s wired alright, too bad they can’t interpret the schematic.
“The exclusion of myspace and other social networking sites on this list is interesting.”
I understand that myspace is being renamed to MySpaceBalls.
mac:
Yes, as it happens, I do know what a conjunction is though, unlike yourself, I tend not to live my life in such minute detail. Perhaps I could suggest to you, that for a really interesting read, you could study the history of the concrete roofing tile from early China onwards which can be found at:
http://www.monierlifetile.com/whytile/tilehistory.html
LOL @ Cubert’s story.
Schmucks, the lot of them.