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Drop-kicking Apple from No. 1 Most Innovative last year to No. 17 this year is one way to get attention for yet another ’50 most’ list.

From Fast Company’s The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies 2019: No. 17: Apple, for pushing its processors.

Apple’s most impressive new product of 2018 wasn’t a phone or a tablet, but a chip: the A12 Bionic. Debuting in last fall’s iPhones, it’s the industry’s first processor based on a seven-nanometer manufacturing process. The A12’s 6.9 billion transistors deliver dramatically faster performance, lower power consumption, and more raw muscle for intensive applications such as AI, AR, and high-end photography. At a time when it remains tougher than ever to induce consumers to upgrade, as proven by Apple’s surprise January move to cut revenue guidance on sluggish iPhone sales, the innovative chip design positions the company to create a whole new generation of irresistible experiences. — Harry McCracken:

What’s 6.9 million transistors when you’ve got innovations like these to contend with:

• A Chinese app that expedites hotel reservations (Meitang Dianping, No. 1)
• The ride-hailing service that pushed Uber out of Shanghai (Grab, No. 2)
• A professional sports franchise that set new attendance records in 2018 (NBA, No. 3).

My take: Having had a hand over the years in picking people of the year, people of the century and hundreds of most influential people, I can’t tell you how arbitrary these magazine lists are.

UPDATE: I notice Google didn’t make the list at all.