Sumito Takeda UBS

After leading the lineup for the past two years, Sumito Takeda slips to second place — but the UBS analyst debuts at No. 1 in Software/Entertainment. One fan applauds Takeda’s “mastery of convergence,” where two seemingly unrelated technologies forge a new opportunity. Case in point: “We expect increasing smartphone penetration to change our relationship with the Internet in 2012,” the analyst says. “The unifying force of the existing major ad media may deteriorate while ad agencies become less labor intensive,” he says. Takeda also anticipates a shift in consumer drivers from cost to convenience; retailers with smartphone applications should pick up market share. Thus, he is focusing on “automation of the advertising market, social advertising and ‘big data’ for online marketing.”  — Pam Baker