Business Wire

Technology Review today announced the 2011 TR50, the second annual list of the world's most innovative technology companies. In selecting the TR50, the editors of Technology Review look for companies that are setting the agenda in an increasingly important market, on the verge of disrupting an established market, or creating an entirely new market. Spanning energy, computing, the Web, biomedicine, and materials, the companies on the list are using their inventions to reshape their industries and to transform how we live.

"The TR50 companies are leaders," said Jason Pontin, editor in chief and publisher of Technology Review. "They are setting the agenda in their markets and prompting other companies to follow them."

The 2011 TR50 highlights the significant changes under way in technology. For example, in computing and the Web, Technology Review selected Facebook for quickly adapting its site to remain a medium that advertisers consistently want to use; Calxeda, whose technology can significantly reduce the cost of computing in data centers; and Netflix, whose inexpensive video on demand points the way to a likely future for television. Other companies made the list for their innovative new products and services that are changing how we read and interact online, such as Apple, which has the rest of the industry is scrambling to catch up with the iPad. In the biomedicine category, researchers have made impressive progress in treatments using stem cells, which is why two stem-cell companies, Geron and Cellular Dynamics International, have been added to the 2011 list.

Meanwhile, the energy companies in this year's TR50 reflect both the invention of new technologies and progress in deploying more mature ones. Among them are Suntech, which has developed its own solar cells and equipment for manufacturing them cheaply; Goldwind, for its work to increase the time wind turbines are operational and thereby lower the cost of wind power; and Silver Spring Networks, which is making energy distribution in the electric grid more efficient. Other companies were selected for their success in making green technologies attractive in the marketplace, including Nissan, which was chosen for its reasonably priced electric Leaf, and BrightSource Energy, whose technology efficiently focuses sunlight to heat water into electricity-generating steam.

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