The Street, an investing and trading website, has named Microsoft number one in innovative companies of 2010. I believe that Microsoft has earned this, even though some of their products have been moved to the back burner lately. The revolutionary Kinect has opened a lot of doors for game developers as well as hardware hackers. There is a lot of potential for the add-on, and it has sold an amazing amount of units since it’s release. There are some things I’d like to see Microsoft move forward a bit faster, namely the Zune HD. The Windows Phone 7 is a great device, but sales have been less than stellar. Once Verizon gets some vendors on deck to offer WP7 under their network, I’m sure sales will increase quite a bit. I know I am going to be jumping on this. Congratulations to Microsoft for keeping up with innovation and keep moving forward!

First off, after slimming its Xbox 360 hardware and just about eliminating the “red circle of death” failures that cost gamers hundreds of dollars in console investment, Microsoft snagged the console sales lead from Nintendo’s Wii and has held it for months. Also, after years of taking a back seat to the Wii’s fun little motion controllers and Miis and getting beaten to market by Sony’s(SNE) PlayStation Move motion device, Microsoft sold 1 million versions of its $150 controller-free Kinect motion-capture device within 10 days of its Nov. 4 release and 2.5 million before the end of November. By all accounts, that should have been a tough sell, considering the console itself goes for as little as $199, but a good concept and great third-party partner products such as Viacom’s(VIA) infectious Dance Central remind us what Microsoft is capable of when its back is to the wall.