Apple plunges to No. 79 on Forbes innovative companies ranking

[OhioChick]

Google ranks higher at No. 47, but Microsoft doesn't even make the list

August 14, 2013 04:26 PM ET

Apple's innovation problems were highlighted today when Forbes published its 2013 list of the world's most innovative companies and ranked Apple at No. 79.

Apple's plummet has been dramatic. In 2011, the first year Forbes issued its Most Innovative Companies list, which ranks 100 firms, Apple earned the No. 5 spot. Last year, the Cupertino, Calif., company dropped 21 positions to No. 26. But the 53-place plunge in 2013 was the biggest decline yet.

Forbes uses a complex algorithm to rank companies by what it calls an "innovation premium," which is the difference between market capitalization and a net present value of cash flows from existing businesses. The innovation premium also takes into account anticipated growth from the existing businesses within a company.

"Think of [the innovation premium] as the investor expectations built into the stock price," explained Bruce Upbin, managing editor of Forbes, in an interview today. "Apple's ranking dropped because of what happened to the stock [price] in the last year. Its ranking is a proxy of what investors think of the future of the company."

More: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9241636/Apple_plunges_to_No._79_on_i_Forbes_i_innovative_companies_ranking

[tridim]

1. Hug a fanboi, they're gonna need it. nt

[coldmountain]

2. Like Forbes is some great fountain of knowledge

Meanwhile George Soros is investing in Apple

[ChromeFoundry]

3. Like Apple is some great fountain of innovation

It just takes some people longer to realize that they are just slapping their brand on open source technology and calling it their own.

Maybe Forbes is just seeing the iPhone 5S and 5C as an attempt to get people to by a "new" iThing that offers nothing worthwhile.

[coldmountain]

4. The iPhone and iPads are truly great inventions

If it's so easy to use open source technology, why didn't you make one in your garage?

[OhioChick]

5. Those aren't made in garages..

They're made in sweatshops in China.

[coldmountain]

6. I bet whatever device you're posting with was also made in an Asian sweatshop

Whay is Apple held to a different standard than it's competitors or say Toyota

The Dark Side of the Toyota Prius
BY PAUL ABOWD
The National Labor Committee (NLC), a New York-based human rights group, has been investigating working conditions at Toyota Motor Corp., and the labor used to produce its best-selling Prius hybrid cars.

In its 65-page report released in June, NLC includes first-hand testimony of factory conditions in “Toyota City,” outside of Nagoya, Japan – less than 200 miles southwest of Tokyo – where the largest auto company in the world employs some 70,000 people.

The report alleges that Toyota exploits guest workers, mostly shipped in from China and Vietnam. According to the NLC, these workers are “stripped of their passports and often forced to work – including at subcontract plants supplying Toyota – 16 hours a day, seven days a week, while being paid less than half the legal minimum wage.” Workers are forced to live in company dormitories and deported for complaining about poor treatment, the report finds.

Low-wage temporary workers make up one-third of Toyota’s Prius assembly-line workers, mostly in the auto-parts supply chain. They are signed to contracts for periods as short as four months, and are paid only 60 percent of a full-time employee’s wage.

Parts plants run by subcontractors advertise standard, nine-hour, five-day-a-week jobs. But according to the NLC, “the typical shift was 15 to 16.5 hours a day, from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. or 1:00 a.m.”

In 2002, Kenichi Uchino, 30, died while working at the “green” Tsutsumi plant that assembles the Prius. During the 13th hour of a routine 14-hour day, Uchino collapsed on the shop floor of the internationally lauded “sustainable” factory, which uses sulfur-oxide-eating paint and boasts 5 percent emissions reductions. A Japanese court ruled that Uchino’s death was caused by exhaustion from overwork.

nthesetimes.com/article/3796/the_dark_side_of_the_toyota_prius

[ChromeFoundry]

7. This thread had absolutely nothing to do with holding Apple to a different standard

I stated Apple is not an innovator, they are a repackager of open source technologies.

You stated that Apple products are wonderful devices that only Apple could manufacture because they cannot be made in my garage (like the Apple II of the '80s).

OC stated that iPhones are not made in Jobs garage by Wozniak.

Now you are making an accusation that someone is trying to hold Apple to a higher standard of accountability, being the richest company and all.. because... "Waahhh...Everybody else is doing it. Stop picking on Apple!"

And then to offer even more inappurtenant verbiage.. here's an article about the Toyota Prius.

If you are trying to confuse people... nicely done. If not - get well soon.

[MicaelS]

8. Blechh....

I like what this person says:

"Apple's already done so much," said Upbin. "What could they do that would top the iPhone and iPad?"

But because investors -- and customers -- are always eager for something new, something so dynamic that it kick starts an entire industry, Apple's increasingly seen as stuck in the very profitable rut it made for itself.

Some major technology companies have never been on the Forbes list, including Microsoft and Intel, both of which spend a huge amount of money on research and development and have thousands of top engineers working on products, said Upbin.

What this list really boils down to is investors just want some new gadget that everyone runs out to buy, because it is the latest hot thing. Companies can keep producing a good product that many people use, but because it isn't a wondergadget, they don't make the list.