50 Smartest Companies 2012
- 1
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Has created a cellular network that can cope with our growing appetite for mobile data.Company Details - 2
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Its high-efficiency gallium arsenide–based solar cells provide a way to lower the cost of solar power.Company Details - 3
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The Siri virtual assistant built into the iPhone 4S demonstrates a new kind of conversational voice-operated interface.Company Details - 4
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A key supplier of equipment for making solar cells, it is helping to lower the cost of solar power.Company Details - 5
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By reducing the electricity demands of data centers, ARM is making cloud computing cheaper.Company Details - 6
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Its systems help doctors and patients with the morass of medical records and billing paperwork.Company Details - 7
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It mines social-media sites to gauge the audience response to television shows and advertising.Company Details - 10
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Using human iPS cells in drug screening could accelerate the development of new therapies.Company Details - 11
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New sequencing projects that the company announced in 2011 include one aimed at predicting preterm births and another that will sequence cancer genomes.Company Details - 12
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Speeding up production of digitally animated movies will also benefit gaming and augmented reality.Company Details - 13
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Its technology makes it easier for users to sync and share files on smart phones, laptops, and desktops.Company Details - 14
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Using lightweight parts will decrease the fuel consumption of the company’s aircraft and make its satellites cheaper to launch.Company Details - 15
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The social network has become the means by which many online users communicate, get news, and find entertainment.Company Details - 16
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Its new diagnostics exploit a growing understanding of the molecular basis of cancer.Company Details - 18
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By building flexible and efficient natural-gas power plants, GE is making it easier for utilities to use intermittent sources of renewable energy.Company Details - 19
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By building flexible and efficient natural-gas power plants, GE is making it easier for utilities to use intermittent sources of renewable energy.Company Details - 20
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Despite its lukewarm performance in social media, Google’s willingness to move into new areas shows it can still be an agenda-setter.Company Details - 21
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Its flexible artificial-intelligence systems have the potential to assist people in many areas, such as health care.Company Details - 23
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By reducing the cost of diagnostic tests, it has allowed the monitoring of more disease markers.Company Details - 24
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Has reinvented transistor architecture as it continues to shrink the size of devices on a chip.Company Details - 25
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Makes fuel and chemicals from the carbon monoxide produced by processes such as steelmaking.Company Details - 26
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Lowering the cost of DNA sequencing opens the door to more genetically targeted treatments and diagnostics.Company Details - 27
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By using virtual computer networks rather than hardwired systems to connect cloud servers, it could make the cloud more secure and reliable.Company Details - 28
- 29
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Its three-dimensional artificial tissue structures can be used for drug testing and are likely to find therapeutic applications.Company Details - 30
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Its software can extract common threads from mountains of data, potentially yielding leads for intelligence agencies and police forces.Company Details - 31
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Online social connections and shared data offer a new way to improve the understanding and treatment of disease.Company Details - 32
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The Mirasol display for mobile devices provides full color even in bright sunlight and uses a fraction as much power as today’s phone and tablet displays.Company Details - 33
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Its high-energy batteries, which will first appear in consumer devices, could make electric cars cheaper and improve their range.Company Details - 36
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Samsung is an increasingly major player in consumer electronics, from iPhone components to new phones, tablets, and OLED TVs; it was the world’s top seller of smart phones in 2011.Company Details - 37
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Its cheaper turbines and installation techniques will make offshore wind plants more affordable.Company Details - 38
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Its catalytic process is able to convert cheap and abundant natural gas into ethylene, a commodity chemical used to make plastic.Company Details - 39
- 40
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Managing natural resources, planning humanitarian missions, and assessing construction projects could all become easier thanks to Skybox’s satellites, which will take more frequent images at lower cost.Company Details - 41
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Its spacecraft and rockets could replace expensive government vehicles as a way into orbit.Company Details - 42
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Its digital music subscription service has succeeded where others have failed or had only lackluster results.Company Details - 43
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Its processors combine the flexibility of software with the efficiency of hardware.Company Details - 46
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A manufacturing process specifically designed for smart-phone and tablet processors will produce chips that increase computing performance without guzzling power.Company Details - 47
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Microblogging has become a ubiquitous adjunct to major events, from earthquakes to revolutions.Company Details - 48
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Has used high-speed methods to find materials that improve the performance of batteries.Company Details - 49
- 50
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Social gaming has dramatically expanded the demographic appeal of computer games and created new business models for game companies.Company Details