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Ou r third annu al listof the com paniesleading commercialinvention.By STE PHE N CASSThe50MostInnovativeCompanies

Visit www.technologyreview.com/tr50 to seeexpanded profiles of the TR50 companies.

at is aTR50 company? It is a business whose innovations force other businesses to alter their strategiccourse. TR50 memb ers are nominated by TechnologReview's editors, who look for com panies that over th

last year have demo nstrated original and valuable technology, arbringing that technology tomarket at a significant scale, and are clearlinfluencing their competitors.

Eighteen of the com panies we selected for the 2011TR50 continuto meet those criteria, and return this year (seven are making theithird ap pearance). Of course, that m eans that 32 companies we pickefor last year's TR5 0 are n o longer on th e list.

Sometimes companies fall off the list because of a decline in thprospec ts of an entire sector. For example, despite being strongly represented in 2010 and 2011, advanced-biofuels companies are absenthis year. This sector has g enerally failed to scale up prod uction tolevel that can begin to make serious inroads into th e use of convetional oil. W hile its technology still has po tential, it currently has littlinfluence on the direction of the fuel or transpo rtation industries.

In other cases, individual com panies lose the vision that m ade themworthy of the T R50 . One such exam ple is Netflix, which we selecte

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Alta DevicesPrivateWhy: Its high-efficiency gal l iumarsenide-based solar cel ls providea way to lower the cost of solarpower.Key innovat ion: Can econom ical lyproduce robust cells that use onlysmall amounts of the expensivesemiconductor.

Babcock .w.vand WilcoxPublicWhy: The company is developingcheaper nuclear reactors.Key Innovat ion: A simpl i f ied mod-ular reactor design decreases sizeand cost

First SolarPublicWhy: It is reducing the cost ofutil ity-scale photovoltaic installa-t ions.Key innovat ion: First Solar con-strains costs with vertical inte-gration of everything from plantconstruction to the manufacture ofhigh-efficiency cadmium tel luridecells.

General Electric NewPublicWhy: By building flexible and ef f i -cient natural-gas power plants, GEis making it easier for util ities to useintermittent sources of renewableenergy.Key innovat ion: Gas turbinesbased on jet engines al low pow erplants to quickly increase ordecrease their electrici ty generationto compe nsate for variations in windor solar power.

GoldwindPublicWhy: It is optimizing wind farms forconditions in China.Key innovat ion: Wind turbinesare specially adapted for the highalti tudes and low wind s peedsthat characterize Chinese windresources.

LanzaTech NewPrivateWhy: Makes fuel and chemicalsfrom the carbon monoxide producedby processes such as steelmaking.Key innovation: Genetically engi-neered organisms turn the gas intoethanol and other useful chemicals.

Sakti3 NewPrivateWhy: Its high-energy batteriescould make electric cars cheaperand improve their range.Key innovation: Making batterieswithout the flammable l iquid foundin conventional electric-car batteriesmeans they can store more energy.

Shell NewPublicWhy: It has learned to exploit oilresources that were previouslyimpractical to tap.Key innovat ion: Has drilled andstarted production at the world'sdeepest offshore well.

SiemensPublicWhy: Its cheaper turbines andinstallation techniques will make off-shore wind plants more affordable.Key Innovation: Gearless turbinesand streamlined man ufacturing lowercapital costs and improve reliability.

SuntechPublicWhy: Has developed a low-cost wayof making better silicon solar cells.Key innovation: Its new panels aremore efficient because they reflectless light and use thinner elec-trodes that block less light.

COMPUTING

Alcatel-Lucent .....PublicWhy: Has created a cel lular net-work that can cope with our grow-ing appetite for mobile data.Key innovat ion: Its LightRadioarchitecture uses many small , eff i-cient, and easily upgraded basestations in place of the larger, lessefficient cell towers of today.

ApplePublicWhy: The Siri virtual assistant builtinto the iPhone 4S demonstrates anew kind of conversational voice-operated interface.Key innovat ion: Software that caninterpret ambiguous sentencesallows Siri to understand evencasual commands.

ARM HoldingsPublicWhy: By reducing the electrici tydemands of data centers, ARM ismaking cloud computing cheaper.Key innovat ion: Its powerful serverprocessors use an architectureoriginally de^veloped for e nergy -conscious mobi le devices.

DreamWorks NewAnimationPublicWhy: Speeding up production of dig-itally animated movies will also ben-efit gaming and augmented reality.Key innovat ion: Software thatcan take maximum advantage of amulticore processor al lows anima-tors to create scenes in minutesinstead of hours.

IBMPublicWhy: Its flexible artificial-intel l igence systems have thepotential to assist people in manyareas, such as health care.Key innovat ion: Watson, whichdemonstrated its capability by beat-ing skilled human quiz-show players,learned by automatical ly digestingtext from boo ks and websites, anability that could be adapted to anyarea of knowledge.

Nicira NewPrivateWhy: By using virtual compu ternetworks rather than hardwiredsystems to con nect cloud servers, itcould make the cloud more secureand reliable.Key innovat ion: Its software takesover the functions of ne twork hard-ware, resulting in a distributed sys-tem of components that can swiftlyrespond to changes in workload.

Palantir NewTechnologiesPrivateWhy: Its software can extract com-mon threads from mountains ofdata, potentially yielding leads forintel ligence agencies and pol iceforces.Key innovat ion: The software,which can begin analyzing a newdata set without extensive prepa-ration, can handle many differenttypes of input, including data frommilitary operations and financialtransactions.

Qualcomm NewPublicWhy: The Mirasol display for mobiledevices provides full color even inbright sunlight and uses a fractionas much power as today's phoneand tablet displays.Key innovat ion: Technology mod-eled on a butterfly's wing createsa bnght image by reflecting andampli fying particular w avelengths ofambient light.

Samsung NewPublicWhy: Samsun g is an increasinglymajor player in consumer electron-ics, from iPhone components tonew phones, tablets, and OLEDTVs; it was the world's top seller ofsmart phones in 20 11 .Key innovat ion: Tightly integrateddesign and manufacturing pro-cesses result in clever, efficientlyproduced designs.

Skybox NewImagingPrivateWhy: Managing natural resources,planning humanitarian missions,and assessing construction proj-ects could al l become easierthanks to Skybox's satel l i tes, whichwil l take more frequent Images atlower cost.Key innovat ion: Its small satellitescost less to build and launch thantraditional ones, and i ts autom atedanalytic softw are m akes i t easierfor customers to extract usefulinformation.

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SquarePrivateWhy: Small businesses benefi t fromits simple mobi le payment sy stem.Key innovat ion: Square has movedbeyond its initial credit card readerfor smart phones; a new app letsyou automatical ly open a tab with amerchant on entering a store.

Tabula NewPrivateWhy: Its processors combine th eflexibility of software with the ef f i -ciency of hardware.Key innovation: Chip designsthat can reconfigure themselvesfaster than existing reprogramma-ble designs make smaller, cheaperchips possible.

Taiwan NewSemiconductorPubiicWhy: A manufacturing processspecifically designed for smart-phone and tablet processorswill produce chips that increasecomputing performance withoutguzzling power.Key innovat ion: Its new materialsavoid the leakage of current thatsaps the energy efficiency of otherhigh-performance processors withvery small features.WEB & DiGITAL MEDA

Bluefin Labs NewPrivateWhy: It mines social-media sites togauge the audience response totelevision shows and advertising.Key innovat ion: Natural-languageanalysis of comm ents on social-media si tes provides fine-grainedinformation about aud ience sizeand sentiment.

Dropbox NewPrivateWhy: Its technology makes it easierfor users to sync and share files onsmart phones, laptops, and d esk-tops.Key innovat ion: Cloud-based sys-tems are the basis for a consumer-focused service that works acrossmultiple platforms.

FacebookPrivateWhy: The social network hasbecome the means by which manyonline users communicate, get news,and find entertainme ntKey innovat ion: New featuresautomatical ly integrate casualonline activity, such as listening tomusic or reading newspaper arti-cles, into the social sphere.

GooglePubiicWhy: Despite i ts lukewarm perfor-mance in social media, Google'swillingness to move into new areasshows it can stil l be an agenda-setter.Key innovat ion: The introductionof Android 4.0 (also known as "IceCream Sandw ich"), with i ts crowd-pleasing interface, confirms thecompany's position as a major forcein mobi le com puting.

OnLive NewPrivateWhy: Allows users to access appl i -cations too powerful for their hard-ware to support.Key innovat ion: Its video stream -ing technology minimizes lag so thatapplications running on a serverappear to be running locally.

Safaricom NewPubiicWhy: Has deployed m obi le healthservices over Kenya's cellular net-work.Key innovat ion: Through cel lphones, the company offersservices such as fi rst-aid recom -mendations for subscribers.

Spotify NewPrivateWhy: Its digital music subscriptionservice has succeeded where oth-ers have failed or had only lacklusterresults.Key innovat ion: Spoti fy has nego-tiated with record labels to allowusers access to a large library ofmusic one track at a time; they caneven download m usic for offl ine use.

TwitterPrivateWhy: Microblogging has become aubiquitous adjunct to major events,from earthquakes to revolutions.Key innovat ion: A redesignedmobile appl ication encourage susers to discover content relevantto them whi le remaining within theambit of Twitter rather than turningto third-party systems.

ZyngaPubiicWhy: Social gaming has dramati-cally expanded the dem ographicappeal of computer games and cre-ated new business models for gamecompanies.Key innovat ion: Zynga has mas-tered the art of giving away gamesand then persuading players tomake in-game purchases of virtualgoods, sometimes adding up tomany times the typical purchaseprice of a game.

Applied MaterialsPubiicWhy: A key suppl ier of eq uipmentfor making solar cells, it is helping tolower the cost of solar power.Key innovat ion: A new manufac-turing system al lows solar produc-ers to increase the output andefficiency of their cells.

EADS NewPublicWhy: Using l ightweight parts wi l ldecrease the fuel consumption ofthe company's aircraft and make itssatellites cheaper to launch.Key innovat ion: Redesigningselect parts to take advantage ofthe capabilities of 3-D printers hascut their weight in half.

Intel NewPubiicWhy: Has reinvented transistorarchitecture as i t continues toshrink the size of devices on a chip.Key innovat ion: Its 3-D transistorswill be used in a new generation of22-nanometer chips.

Siluria NewPrivateWhy: Its catalytic process is able toconvert cheap and abundant natu-ral gas into ethylene, a commoditychemical used to make plastic.Key innovat ion: Developed a family of catalysts that selectively causmethane to react to form ethylene.

Wildcat NewDiscoveryPrivateWhy: Has used high-speed meth-ods to find materials that improvethe performance of batteries.Key innovat ion: Identified a pair omaterials that could increase energdensity by 25 percent in batteriesfor cars and portable electronics.

TRANSPORTATIONBetter PlacePrivateWhy: Its new infrastructure extendthe effective range of electricvehicles.Key innovat ion: Has designedand instal led battery swap stationsa charging network, and a centralcontrol station to manage a fleet oelectric cars in Israel.

SpaceXPrivateWhy: Its spacecraft and rocketscould replace expensive govern-ment vehicles as a way into orbit.Key innovat ion: The reusableDragon cargo capsule is set tobecome the fi rst private space-craft to visit the International SpacStat ion.WiTricity NewPrivateWhy: WiTricity is making it moreconvenient to charge electric cars.Key innovat ion: Its system ca nrecharge a battery pack wirelessly

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BIOMEDiCiNEAthenahealth NewPublicWhy: Its systems help doctors andpatients with the morass of medicalrecords and bi l l ing paperwork.Key innovation: Developed c loud-based software for electronic healthrecords and pract ice management

Cellular DynamicsPrivateWhy: Using human iPS cel ls in drugscreening could accelerate thedevelopment of new therapies.Key innovation: Its new productdenved from iPS cel ls is meant foruse in vascular targeted drug dis-covery, t issue reg eneration , and l i fescience research.

Complete Genom icsPubiicWhy: New sequ enc ing projec ts thatthe company anno unced in 201 1include one aimed at predictingpreterm births and another that wi l lsequence cancer genomes.Key innovation: A computat ionalplatform al lows i t to assemble DNAsequences into genomes moreaccurately.

Foundation NewMedicinePrivateWhy: Its new diagnostics exploi ta growing unders tanding of themolecular basis of cancer.Key innovation: It has develop eda comprehensive cancer diagnostictest and is partnering with pharma-ceutical companies to use the testin drug development

Healthpoint NewServicesPrivateWhy: It is using telem edicine tech-niques to del iver health care to ruralIndiaKey innovation: Its network ofeight centers brings advanced tele-medicine systems to patients.

Integrated NewDiagnosticsPrivateWhy: By reducing the cost of diag-nostic tests, i t has al lowed the moni-toring of more disease markers.Key innovation: Its synthetic anti-bodies replace more expensive anti-bodies widely used in diagnostics.

Life T echnologiesPubiicWhy: Lower ing the cost of DN Asequenc ing opens the door to moregenet ical ly targeted t reatments anddiagnostics.Key innovation: Its benchtopsequencer can sequence a humangeno me in one day, at a cost of just$1 ,0 00 per genome.

Organovo NewPrivateWhy: Its three-dimensional arti f ic ialt issue structures can be used fordrug testing and are l ikely to f indtherapeutic appl ications.Key innovation: A printing processmethodical ly deposits layers of cel lsand gel material to bui ld up newtissues.

PatientsLikeMe NewPrivateWhy: Online social connectionsand shared data offer a new wayto improve the understanding andtreatment of disease.Key innovation: Publ ished a peer-reviewed study, based on datavolunteered by si te users, that coun-tered the results of a cl inical tr ialassessing the effects of l i thium onALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

RochePubiicWhy: Its new drugs target geneticmutations in cancer cel ls.Key innovation: Developed a lung-cancer drug and a diagnostic testfor the mutat ion that makes somecancers susceptible to the drug.

last year for piggybacking a video-on-demand service onto its exist-ing DVD-by-mail subscriptions. Netflix had already disrupted thebusiness model of brick-and-mortar video rental stores and clev-erly maneuvered to prevent itself ftom being disrupted in turn bystreaming video technology. But later in 2011, the company triedto split the streaming side of its operations from its DVD ser-vice, an ill-fated decision that provoked public ridicule and theloss of hun dreds of thous ands of subscribers before the companyreversed cou rse. Suddenly, Netflix wasn't able to clearly dictate itsown agenda, let alone that ofthe entertainmen t industry.

With still other com panies, it's not the vision but the executionthat is lacking. If the selection process for the TR 50 had occurreda few mo nths earlier, we probably would have included Amazonon the list (as wehad the previous two years), citing the release ofthe K indle Fire. The Fire initially looked like a serious competitorto the iPad for dominance ofthe tablet computing market. Eventhough it had fewer functions than the iPad, it cost much lcs.s andmade clever useof Amazon's extensive cloud infrastructure . But asconsumers racked up m ore daily experience with the device, morethan a few of them found their initial satisfaction turning to disap-pointment. Many ofthe things the Fire was supposed to do, it didn'do well enough; customers complained of connectivity problem sor difficulties with the touch-screen navigation. Although the com-pany has released software p atches that it claims will address mostusers' concerns, launching a product that frustrated many customers showed that Amazon is still a challenger rather than a leaderwhen it comes to merging consumer electronics with the cloud.

Finally, some companies fell off the list simply because theywere crowded out by others with big new ideas. Some of thesenewcomers are shaking up established fields. Dropbox has madeits mark in the previously sleepy world of online storage. Babcockand Wilcox is developing small reactors tha t could change theregulatory an d econom ic calculus of nuclear power. And A thena-health is reinventing health insurance as an exercise in informa-tion technology.

Still others are breaking into new territory. PatientsLikeMe istransforming t he notion of how a clinical trial mu st be conductedby encouraging patients with chronic conditions to share intima tedetails online. EADS is turning 3-D printing (originally createdforth e p roduction of prototypes) into a full-scale man ufacturingtechnolog;y. And LanzaTech is turning carbon monoxide emis-sions into fuel.

As a group, the TR50 companies represent our best judgm ent ofthe commercial innovations most likely to change lives around theworld. Do you agree with us? Which companies that didn't m ake itonto the list should have, and which do you think didn't deserve aplace? Let us know at w ww.technologyrevlevif.com/tr50. G3STEPHEN CASS IS TH E SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR OF TECHNOLOGY REVIEW.

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