Apple, fourth most innovative company thanks to its chips

Apple has been ranked as the fourth company in Fast Company. This is nothing more than the annual list of the most innovative companies of the last year and the report was published yesterday. Apple has appeared in the ranking this year, rising three points from its seventh place in 2016. The company led by Tim Cook is ranked high by reputable companies such as Amazon, Google and Uber. Behind Apple are Snapchat, Facebook and Netflix.

The publication rated Apple highly for the design of four of its own chips last year, allowing it to "control its own destiny." These include the A10 Fusion chip in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, the W1 chip in the AirPods, the T1 chip in the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, and the S2, from the second generation of the company's smartwatch, the Apple. Watch.

"We pick projects where we feel we can make a difference, the big features that affect the customer," said Anand Shimpi, who works in hardware technologies at Apple. For example, the impressive depth of field effect of the iPhone 7 camera? That is the direct responsibility of the new A10 chip. "The actual output of the stored image is why we put this processor on," says Shimpi.

Each chip has resulted in technological advancements for Apple. The W1 chip in AirPods, for example, is programmed to automatically route audio to each earbud, and boost the microphone, while its low-power results are industry-leading with a battery life of up to five hours with a single charge.

The S2 chip in Apple Watch Series 2 models leads to performance improvements without sacrificing battery life, and the four-core A10 Fusion chip in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus is up to two times faster than the A8 chip. on the iPhone 6 and provides a much longer battery life, up to two hours more than any iPhone has ever achieved.