What much of the tech community already knew was confirmed today when Booz & Company, a consulting firm, released its annual list of most innovative companies in the world.  Apple was awarded the number one spot based on a survey that went out to top-level executives around the world.

This is Apple's third year in a row gaining the distinction, though according to reports, it increased its lead over the competition by quite a bit this year, with a full 70 percent of respondents to the survey. As much as they deserve it, it's not surprising for anyone who's kept an eye on the company's landmark year of high-profile launches.

Not only did Apple continue to innovate its existing product line, pushing everything to be thinner, faster and more powerful, but the company's newest product, the iPad mini, launched with strong sales and received critical acclaim.

Second on the list was Silicon Valley neighbor Google, and third was the consumer products company 3M.

Most impressively, Apple maintains a commitment to its business plan of a small line of well-designed and well thought out products. This allows it to spend quite a bit less on research and development than its rivals at Google and Microsoft, but still be at the forefront of technical development.

Interestingly enough, none of the companies that cracked the top three most innovative were anywhere on the list of top 20 R&D spenders, indicating that they might be successful for knowing the value of a good idea.

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