Each year the geek's bible, Wired magazine, comes up with a list of what it thinks are the most interesting, innovative and exciting technology companies.
This year's list has already done the rounds for those who have got their copies of the mag, but unfortunately mine hasn't arrived in the post. I try to be on the pulse, but it just doesn't work.
Now that this year's Wired 40 has arrived online, however, I thought I'd share a rundown of it with you.
Top spot goes to Apple, who were a new entry at third last year. Certainly it goes a long way to underline the phoenix-like rebirth of the company, who have drawn good headlines and bad over the last 12 months but seem to be unable to put a foot wrong for consumers. Wired - like most of us - wonders "with such a foothold in music, can an assault on TV be far behind?".
In second place comes last year's winner, Google, which continues to lead the search market in many areas and just seems to get bigger and bigger. What price Google browser this year?
And in third - and somewhat surprising in terms of its somewhat underdeveloped identity - comes South Korean tech manufacturer Samsung. It's been a great year for the Seoul firm, which threatens to kick Sony in the battle for consumer electronics mindshare.
Big winners include General Electric (a new entry at 17) and medical technology firm Medtronic, which arrives in at 18. The biggest losers include Nokia, which has bounced back from a bad year but dropped to 29th place, and eBay, which lost five places but just kept in the top 10 by the skin of its teeth. Advertising group WPP dropped out completely from 23rd last year, and a number of lower-ranking firms lost out this time round.
Take a look, if you have the chance.
[There is a vague irony here which I'd like to point out to you, however: I typed out a much more in-depth version of this about ten minutes ago. But my Macintosh - from, of course, #1 firm Apple, crashed and I lost it. I shall be marking them down points.]
