Google edges Apple on 'The Wired 40'
updated 11:35 am EDT, Thu June 29, 2006
Apple on The Wired 40
Google has displaced Apple as the No. 1 company on The Wired 40, Wired's annual listings of its top companies that have basic fundamentals such as strategic vision, global reach, and killer technology as well as an "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." Google is described as 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," while Apple, No. 1 last year, is recognized for its iLife suite of applications.
"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."
