Apple Named #3 In Wired's Top 10; Pixar #9

by , 8:00 AM EDT, May 26th, 2004

Each year, Wired magazine offers up a list of companies they believe are the pacesetters of current and future technology. According to Wired, these companies find innovative ways to create and market products and services in an increasingly global marketplace, they manage to make their presence known as leaders in their respective fields, and have a clear vision of who they are and where they are going. All this while remaining nimble enough to change with the times.

This year, both companies led by Apple CEO Steve Jobs made not only The Wired 40 list , but managed to be in the top 10, with Apple taking the number 3 spot.

3. Apple Computer (new)

THE NEW FACE OF CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
They laughed in 2001 when Steve Jobs introduced the iPod, Apple's $400 MP3 player. They laughed in 2003 when he opened the iTunes Music Store, selling songs for 99 cents when millions of consumers were downloading tracks for free. But Jobs is having the last laugh, while creating the kind of platform-and-content synergy that gadget makers dream of. Having sold 5 million iPods, Apple owns 55 percent of the music player market. Meanwhile, iTunes has coaxed the Big Five record labels into a single online store and persuaded fans to download - legally - more than 60 million songs, about 70 percent of commercial downloads. And beyond consumers of digital media, Apple is empowering a new generation of content creators with superior music production (GarageBand) and video editing (iMovie). Put them on the blazing Power Mac G5 and you have the platform of the creative class.

Done: The iPod Mini, released in February, is already taking market share from makers of smaller, cheaper music players.

To do: With iTunes for Windows and the HP-branded iPod, Apple is finally playing well with others. If only it would find more playmates.

Pixar came in at number 9:

9. Pixar (new)

THE ANIMASTER
In 1995, Steve Jobs predicted in these pages that Pixar would usher in a new era of filmmaking, possibly even supplanting traditional 2-D cel animation. It took less than a decade for his company to deliver, serving up digital crowd-pleasers like Finding Nemo, the highest-grossing animated movie of all time. Between five feature films and a handful of shorts, Pixar has collected a staggering $2.5 billion and 17 Academy Awards - an average of $500 million and three Oscars for each feature. And it consistently keeps 44 percent of what it takes in, an unheard-of percentage in the media industry. Pixar also licenses its technology to others, but its ability to advance digital imagery with each new release keeps it in the vanguard. Pixar's success in movies, along with Apple's in music, has made Jobs the first digital media mogul.

Done: Jobs declined to renew his 13-year-old distribution deal with Disney, prompting would-be suitors to begin a frenzied mating dance.

To do: Pixar needs a distribution partner willing to accept a smaller cut than Disney, yet with enough clout to reach the masses.

The Wired 40 includes other heavyweights like Google (#1), Amazon (#2), IBM (#13), Nvidia (#22), Intel (#24), and Microsoft (#27). Check out the full list at Wired News.

The Mac Observer Spin:

Apple, on the other hand, has made Wired's list primarily because of iTunes, iTunes Music Store, and the iPod. The new G5 Power Mac only garnered a mention, and we see that as a problem. It's also more information to back up our insistence that Apple needs to do more to promote the Mac platform. We believe that the creation of a Mac division is a step in the right direction, but it remains to be seen if the new division will take off like Marion Jones, or falter and fall like a kid taking his first steps. We hope that it's the former; Apple really needs to get the word out about its other products.

Back to the list: What we find interesting is who is not on it. Sony, for instance, didn't make the list. Wired explains why in the section of the article called 'Left Behind'.

We also wonder about some of the companies that did make the list, like Microsoft. The Wired list admits that Big Redmond's agenda is less about innovation, and more about protecting its assets from upstarts. So why include them? Big Redmond is, for all of its faults, a guiding company in the world of technology.

At any rate, having two companies that Steve Jobs built (or bought) both make the top 10 in any list is a very Good Thing™.

The Wired 40