The 25 Most Innovative Products of the Year
Web apps that transcend the Web. PCs that redefine what a PC can do. And oh yeah, a certain cell phone you may have heard of. We pick 25 breakthroughs that you can get your hands on right now. — Recommend this story? — Yes — No
Context & Ripple Effects
PC World's year-end franchise is growing: after last year's 20-product edition, the 2007 list expands to 25 slots, arriving in a December already crowded with rival canonization attempts like Time's 50 Top 10 Lists of 2007. The description frames the field around three fronts — web applications that 'transcend the Web,' PCs redefining the category, and 'a certain cell phone you may have heard of.'
The pickup pattern is telling: the syndication that surfaced came from Google-focused blogs rather than general gadget press, suggesting the list's search-company entries were what traveled. That continues a thread running back through 2005's best-of Web 2.0 software roundups, when browser-delivered apps first became list-worthy in their own right.
First-order effects
- Products on the list gain a third-party 'innovative' credential they can cite in marketing during the holiday buying window, while PC World converts its annual feature into a larger, more competitive 25-slot property.
Second-order effects
- Rival publishers running concurrent year-end lists — Time among them — are forced to differentiate their own selections or risk their picks being overshadowed by PC World's expanded slate, and vendors now court inclusion across multiple lists as free distribution.
Third-order effects
- If the 20-to-25 expansion holds as a pattern, year-end lists entrench into a self-reinforcing canon in which the same flagship devices recur across years and publishers, narrowing which products get remembered as defining each era.
The trend: Year-end product rankings are consolidating into an annual canon-making ritual, expanding in scope as web apps and mobile hardware reshape what counts as an innovative product.