Technology Review today announced the 2010 TR50, the first annual list of the 50 most innovative companies in the world. Spanning energy, computing, the Web, biomedicine, and materials, each company on the list has been evaluated based on its business model, strategies for deploying and scaling up its technologies, and the likelihood of success. Each company in the 2010 TR50 has excelled not only at inventing technology but also at using it to transform how we live and work.

“In choosing the TR50, we picked companies with this year’s most important inventions and breakthroughs. But we also selected companies that are successfully growing businesses and markets around innovative new products,” said Jason Pontin, editor in chief and publisher of Technology Review. “The TR50 list is our selection of companies that show the most impressive innovation in commercializing new technologies.”

The 2010 TR50 highlights the significant changes underway in technology, particularly in the areas of computing and energy. For example, in computing, Technology Review selected IBM for its launch of cloud-computing services, and Google for its development of Chrome OS, an operating system designed to run on the Web. Amazon, Apple, and Twitter made the list for their innovative new products and services that are changing how we read and interact online.

Meanwhile, the energy companies in the TR50 reflect both the invention of exciting new technologies and progress in deploying more mature technologies. Among them are A123 Systems, Coskata, Amyris, and Joule Biotechnologies, all included because they invented energy technologies that could eventually transform the world. But the TR50 also includes Suntech, a China-based firm that is now the world’s largest supplier of the most common type of solar panels; eSolar, which is using software to make large solar farms more efficient; and Nissan, which is introducing an all-electric car. These companies made the list because of their remarkable success in making green technologies attractive in the marketplace.

“As varied as the companies in the TR50 collection are, they all demonstrate the power and potential of innovative thinking for a better tomorrow. We will be increasing our coverage around how businesses are creating and adapting to new technologies,” said Pontin. “This is the first of several new business intelligence offerings by Technology Review.”

NOTE: A complete list of the 2010 TR50 follows.

About Technology Review, Inc.

Technology Review, Inc., an independent media company owned by MIT, is the authority on the future of technology, identifying emerging technologies and analyzing their impact for leaders. Technology Review’s media properties include Technology Review magazine, the oldest technology magazine in the world (founded in 1899); the daily news website TechnologyReview.com; and events such as the annual EmTech@MIT Conference.

2010 TR50

1366 Technologies
A123 Systems
Adobe
Akamai
Alnylam
Amazon.com
American Superconductor
Amyris
Apple
Applied Materials
AthenaHealth
BIND Biosciences
Complete Genomics
Coskata
DuPont
eSolar
Fate Therapeutics
First Solar
Fluidigm
GE
GlaxoSmithKline
Google
HTC
Hulu
IBM
Illumina
Infinera
Intel
iRobot
Joule Biotechnologies
Luxtera
Medtronic
Nanosphere
Nissan
Novomer
Obopay
Pacific Biosciences
Plastic Logic
Prime View International
Serious Materials
Solyndra
StreamBase
Suntech
Synthetic Genomics
Tesla Motors
Tilera
Twitter
Ushahidi
Yelp
Zynga