Google, Garmin and great big space planes are among the winners of The Economist's Innovation Awards 2012. From improving the battery life of our laptops to making water safe to drink in the world's poorest regions, these are the people making a difference to our world.
The Economist Awards recognise a number of people that we as gadget fans have cause to be grateful to. One of the most important parts of any gadget is the battery, and scientist Yet Ming Chiang is recognised for his work in discovering nanoscale metal phosphate cathodes, paving the way for a new generation of lithium-ion batteries.
Marc Benioff is lauded for reinventing the software industry with Salesforce, which lets companies log on to a website to use software and services rather than buying and installing it.
And Gary Burrell and Dr Min Kao win the Consumer Products category. Combine 'Gary' and 'Min' and what do you get? That's right: Garmin. The pair are recognised for their work on bringing GPS into the consumer world with sat-navs and other mapping kit to help us find our way.
On the subject of maps, Jack Dangermond and John Hanke scoop the prize for their pioneering use of geospatial data in software applications.
From mapping the Earth to escaping it, the No Boundaries category is won by Elon Musk, the man behind PayPal and Tesla Motors, for his championing of commercial spaceflight with SpaceX.
And the company recognised for its innovations? Google! "Though sometimes not the first to offer a particular product," the Big G "has proved skillful at innovating and improving upon existing ideas and applications" and "is especially adept at acquiring young companies and rapidly expanding their products and services".
The Awards also laud people who deserve recognition from not just gadget fans, but from everyone.
Napoleone Ferrara claims the prize in the Bioscience category for his work in cloning therapies. And Dr Greg Allgood and Dr Philip Souter are worthy winners for their work on making water safe to drink. Dr Souter developed a powder that when mixed with water removes dirt, cysts and pollutants, and kills bacteria and viruses. His aptly named colleague Dr Allgood persuaded Procter & Gamble to distribute the water purification tablets on a non-profit basis.
Is Google the most innovative company? Is commercial space flight out of this world? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.
Android App 
RSS Feeds 
iPhone App 
Newsletters 
Comments 3
Add your comment
Tim Acheson 16 November, 2012 10:31
Google does not belong in the same league as the others!
Google appears to be cited for no other reason but to mention a big name tech company, presumably perceived as cool and trendy by the aging judges appointed by the newspaper.
"Though sometimes not the first to offer a particular product ... [Google[ has proved skillful at innovating and improving upon existing ideas and applications ... [and] is especially adept at acquiring young companies"
Exactly! Google follows their familiar pattern of imitation rather than innovation, and of course acquisition funded by search.
Google is fundamentally a one-trick pony. The corporation led the way in search at a fortuitous moment in the early days of the web when the alternatives were extremely poor and usage was exploding.
And Google has been dining out on search ever since, spending the cash on expansion -- mostly acquisitions, and imitation more than innovation. This includes their simple advertising service, propelled to popularity on the back of their monopoly in search, but it grows less and less profitable as the web evolves leaving Google behind. (E.g. When Facebook overtook Google as the most popular website.) The company has been "resting on its laurels". Google is still overwhelmingly reliant on search for its performance as a business, and indeed for its identity as a tech giant in the public eye. However, search was launched a decade ago and the web has moved on while Google.com has barely changed. Thus, for example, Facebook overtook Google as the most popular website some time ago. Google is a dinosaur of the old web. It is overrated and over-valued, facing a future of decline.
Peter Hudson 16 November, 2012 11:02
It did make me think. People criticise Apple for taking other peoples ideas and improving them whilst doing nothing original, but Google seems to be celebrated for it. I can't say I've ever seen anything Google has done as being particularly innovative.
anonymous 16 November, 2012 11:13
I think it is right that Google get recognised for what they do. Google is a big company and continues to invest its money and knowledge back into web technologies.
Android for example was a project backed by Google back in 2003 and then eventually bought by Google in 2005. That is a success story we hear about but they are putting their money into other web technology companies that I can't imagine would get funding from other well known tech giants such as Apple or Facebook.
Myself as a developer have used code libraries created by Google which are provided on Open Source licences. Check out their IO conference which they have been doing for the past 5 years for mutual benefit of all developers.
https://developers.google.com/events/io/
So Google do give back, innovate and improve. Anyone who can't see that is probably spending too much time looking at social media sites.