2011 Technology Innovation Awards

[caption id="attachment_4072" align="alignleft" width="202" caption="Innovative Technology Awards 2011"][/caption]

The Wall Street Journal covered some of the most innovative technology gadgets to come out in 2011. Much more than iPads ad cell phones. Take a look!

If you think start-ups have a monopoly on innovation, think again. Some of the world's biggest companies are among the winners of The Wall Street Journal's Technology Innovation Awards this year.

The winners include such big names as International Business Machines Corp., Novartis AG, Intel Corp., Abbott Laboratories, Xerox Corp. and runners-up Hewlett-Packard Co. and Yahoo Inc.

Of course, big companies have featured in these awards in the past. But the trend was especially noticeable this year, not only in the number of winners but also in the number submitting applications.

"Historically, the rap would be that big companies do incremental stuff, but you look to start-ups for breakthroughs," says Scott D. Anthony, managing director at Innosight Ventures and one of the judges for the Innovation Awards. "But it seems that big companies are increasingly doing really interesting innovation work. Large companies are recognizing that they need to approach innovation more expansively."

The Wall Street Journal received 605 applications this year from companies, organizations and individuals in 31 countries. A team of Journal editors and reporters reviewed the entries and forwarded 155 to an independent panel of judges from venture-capital firms, universities and other organizations and companies. From that pool, the judges chose a total of 35 winners and runners-up in 16 categories.