Oliver Haslam on February 21, 2018, 4:30 am

Apple Has Been Ranked As Most Innovative Company For 2018, Here’s Why

Good news for Apple today following the release of a new list by Fast Company in which it highlights the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2018, with the iPhone maker finding itself at the very top of the pile.

You may remember that Apple found itself down in fourth position on last year’s list, but thanks to the arrival of the iPhone X as well as technologies such as Face ID and ARKit, Apple is now seen as the best around.

Fast Company notes that Apple’s reaching the summit comes down to the fact that it now has plenty of devices that are at the top of their game in their own respective categories, with the Apple Watch Series 3 and iPhone X in particular helping the company’s cause.

For a company slagged for not having had a hit since the iPad in 2010, Apple had a notable 2017: Its wireless AirPods became ubiquitous around the country; the Apple Watch Series 3 is a bestseller; developers embraced ARKit, its AR framework; and even skeptics were blown away by the iPhone X.

Fast Company also praised Apple for its “ambitious” software and hardware projects, something that will be excellent news to Apple amidst accusations that it has relied on new features to impress buyers to the detriment of less sexy talking points such as software quality and stability.

Apple may see this news as vindication, although given the news iOS 12 will focus on stability and performance rather than new features, it’s likely Apple still knows what flaws it needs to correct in its software teams.

For instance, it uses AI techniques to wring as much life as possible out of the iPhone’s battery. Because of Apple’s privacy-driven decision to limit the amount of information it aggregates and analyzes in the cloud, it also does much of its AI right on the devices rather than using massive server farms.

Rounding up the top three, Fast Company has Netflix in second place and Square in third spot.

(source: Fast Company)