World's top companies for R&D

• R&D investment: $10.4 billion
• 1-year growth: 6.1%

Not far behind is Microsoft (MSFT), which has ambitions of its own in smart devices, launching a much improved Surface 2 tablet this month. That followed a write-off of nearly $1 billion of Surface inventory in July.

The missteps in mobile have been cited by some as one explanation for CEO Steve Ballmer's announcement in August that he will retire within a year. Just a month later, the company said it was spending $7 billion to buy Nokia (NOK)-- still one of the world's biggest mobile phone makers but a big loser in the smartphone race. Nokia cut R&D spending by 15% to $5.5 billion last year.

Microsoft's biggest innovation last year was Windows 8, the first major overhaul of the operating system since 1995. Consumers responded badly to the new software's starkly different look, and the company rolled out an upgrade in October with significant tweaks to win them over.

NEXT: Intel