This.

MS did some innovative things back then, if you count stealing other people ideas innovative - although they did improve on those peoples work.

Sony was also in its heyday back then. Now its just a shell of its former self selling outsourced electronics under the Sony name. Plenty of other companies have stood up and taken their place.

Apple and Microsoft are right at the top of the list as well. Which makes me believe the list is a complete joke -- neither of those companies has had any real innovations anytime recently, and both companies are literally based on the idea of stealing ideas from other companies. It was literally the founding practice for both Microsoft and Apple.

 In the world I live in those companies, schools, and organization are synonymous with technological inovation. Maybe things have changed but when I was a kid NASA was the public pillar representing Science and technology.

@kenzomatic - with the exclusion of NASA, and Boeing, the average UK citizen wouldn't have even heard of the rest of those companies. And, seriously, NASA has little effect on UK life, and Boeing = aeroplanes (well, here it does, anyway).

I don't have a clue who MIT or General Dynamics are. And I only heard of Lockheed Martin through Bowling for Columbine.

But the brands are not that powerful today. I know the companies are great and do a lot of innovative things, but they don't brand themselves with the public like Sony, Apple etc.

These guys are more of a behind-the-scenes kind of firms.

You don't see commercials for NASA or Boeing on TV,  but what you do see is Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft pushing their gaming consoles "into the next generation of gaming". Of course this attracts more attention than Lockheed Martin's innovations, because they are all behind the scene.

Think of Sony's Bravia commercials. That is some crazy marketing they have going for themselves, which is probably one of the reasons they are #1 on that list.

If we were talking about behind-the-scenes companies, General Electric would be in every Top Five list made.

As it is now, I bet 50% of this forum couldn't even give me a brief rundown on GE without a Google search.

Sony Rolly, Sony Playstation, Sony Ericsson (Xperia), I completly agree, Sony has a diverse line of products, i love all of them...

Id say Apple & Sony are a lot a like in my book

 GE has defently done a ton of stuff as well, sadly most people just think they make light bulbs.

Pfizer
Eastman Kodak (the people really behind oled's)
DuPont

Also deserve to be up there

Sony and Microsoft have others things appart from videogames so is reasonable.

As a brand? Yes. PS vs Nintendo? HECK NO. But Sony has come up with some fabulous projects, such as the walkman.