Apple Again Places #5 in Annual Fortune 500 Rankings

by

Fortune has released its annual Fortune 500 list of the top U.S. corporations based on gross revenue, which together accounted for $12.5 trillion in revenues, $945 billion in profits and $17 trillion in market value. Apple maintained the 5th spot in the rankings for the second consecutive year after steadily rising from 6th place in 2013, 17th place in 2012, 35th place in 2011 and 56th place in 2010.

Apple Fortune 500 2015

"After a bumpy start to 2014, Apple's stock finished the year up 40%, adding nearly $200 billion to the company's market value. A product pipeline that's gotten Apple fanboys lining up all over again has certainly helped reenergize revenue growth: In addition to unveiling new categories like Apple Pay and Apple Watch, the company launched the iPhone 6, selling a record-breaking 10 million units in the first three days. As CEO Tim Cook recently told investors: "It's tough to find something in the numbers not to like." The normally low-profile Cook is breaking new ground in other ways too—in October, 2014 he came out as the first openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company."

Fortune identified fast-growing iPhone and Mac sales and brand power as two of the company's key strengths, while citing declining iPad sales and high expectations from investors and consumers as weaknesses. The publication believes Apple's much-rumored streaming TV service presents an opportunity for the company, while Android and Chinese smartphone manufacturers remain threats.

Apple recorded operating revenue of $182.79 billion during the 2014 fiscal year, a 7% year-over-year increase. Walmart, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Berkshire Hathaway topped the list with between $194.6 and $485.6 billion revenue, although it's worth noting that Apple finished ahead of all four of those companies with $39.5 billion in profit and recently posted two record-breaking quarters.

Tags: Apple, Fortune 500, Fortune

Top Rated Comments

William Gates Avatar
William Gates
116 months ago
A product pipeline that's gotten Apple fanboys lining up all over again
A product pipeline that has Walmart fanboys lining up all over again

A product pipeline that's gotten Exxon fanboys lining up all over again

A product pipeline that's gotten Berkshire Hathaway fanboys lining up all over again

Do they not realize how ridiculous this sounds? 10% of the world are Apple fanboys now?

Also, "Office Equipment" LMAO
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GGJstudios Avatar
GGJstudios
116 months ago
Reading updates like this just makes my blood boil when I think about the 1.4GHz iMac/Mac Mini and the 2012 MacBook Pro still being sold. Just put some of your damn bank balance back into the company, Apple, and don't ship junk. :mad:
Of course, as consumers, we have the option to not buy anything we feel is "junk", doesn't meet our needs or doesn't represent a good value to us, regardless of what any company chooses to produce.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
teslo Avatar
teslo
116 months ago
Of course, as consumers, we have the option to not buy anything we feel is "junk", doesn't meet our needs or doesn't represent a good value to us, regardless of what any company chooses to produce.
and 'junk' allows people who don't obsess over specs on tech sites to enter the apple ecosystem gleefully, without issue, becoming loyal customers.

i wish i could make 'junk' like this.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GGJstudios Avatar
GGJstudios
116 months ago
Unfortunately, as working in a reseller and doing aftersales support, consumers will happily spend £900 on an iMac without realising it performs worse than the equivalent model from 3 years ago. And that reflects extremely badly on the company when they realise they've wasted their money.

That's because Apple dish out the rhetoric about being the best, and putting the user-experience first, then cripple it with these sorts of machines that do nothing to inspire brand confidence. Even as 'low-cost' machines they still cost an absolute fortune.

If Apple don't want to make well-performing machines across their line, then maybe they shouldn't advertise themselves as being obsessed with quality and performance.
You're obviously dissatisfied with some Apple products. It's also obvious that the majority of buyers do not share your sentiments, or Apple wouldn't be as successful as they are. It's a fact that most computer users rarely, if ever, come close to taxing their computers to the limits of their capability, and many who buy new Macs have never owned one before, so they have nothing to compare it to. Also, many would prefer owning a Mac and running OS X over any other option, even if it means sacrificing on the upper end of performance or having to pay more.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
keysofanxiety Avatar
keysofanxiety
116 months ago
Reading updates like this just makes my blood boil when I think about the 1.4GHz iMac/Mac Mini and the 2012 MacBook Pro still being sold. Just put some of your damn bank balance back into the company, Apple, and don't ship junk. :mad:
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
redscull Avatar
redscull
116 months ago
If Apple don't want to make well-performing machines across their line, then maybe they shouldn't advertise themselves as being obsessed with quality and performance.
Exactly. Apple's message and brand are only applicable to some of its products. But consumers have to learn this the hard way if they aren't the type to research beforehand, and the result is that they're left thinking Apple computers are overpriced with a rather poor user experience. It's going to be awhile before this lack of quality control really impacts the company, and then it'll be too late to turn it around.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Read Full Article • 277 comments
Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
Read Full Article • 83 comments
Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Orange Feature 2

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments as Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:44 am PDT by
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
Read Full Article • 416 comments
iOS 18 Siri Integrated Feature

iOS 18 Rumored to Add These 10 New Features to Your iPhone

Wednesday April 24, 2024 2:05 pm PDT by
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
Read Full Article
iPad And Calculator App Feature

Apple Finally Plans to Release a Calculator App for iPad Later This Year

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:08 am PDT by
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
Read Full Article • 222 comments