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Apple Rises to Third in Annual Fortune 500 List of America's Largest Companies

Thursday May 16, 2019 5:30 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple has ranked third in the annual Fortune 500 list of the highest-revenue-generating companies based in the United States, with $265.5 billion revenue in fiscal 2018, trailing only Walmart and oil giant ExxonMobil.


Apple moved up one spot in this year's rankings, overtaking billionaire investor Warren Buffett's holding company Berkshire Hathaway.

Fortune's description of Apple:
Two thousand eighteen will be remembered as the year that Apple first achieved a market value of $1 trillion, as well as when growth in iPhones, Apple's largest single product by far, began to slow. Before the introduction of the iPod—the iPhone's precursor—Apple was a once-exciting computer maker. Now, only a retailer and an oil company are bigger. Its challenge: as consumers hang onto phones longer, Apple is repositioning itself as a services provider. Already iTunes, Apple Music, iCloud, and cuts from sales in its popular Apple Store generate billions of dollars of sales.
Apple has made the Fortune 500 list for 37 years and has now cracked the top 10 spots for seven consecutive years:
  • 2019: 3rd
  • 2018: 4th
  • 2017: 3rd
  • 2016: 3rd
  • 2015: 5th
  • 2014: 5th
  • 2013: 6th
  • 2012: 17th
  • 2011: 35th
  • 2010: 56th
Other notable technology companies in this year's Fortune 500 include Amazon in fifth, Google parent company Alphabet in 15th, and Microsoft in 26th.

Tag: Fortune 500
[ 54 comments ]


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Lone Deranger
3 weeks ago

aPpLe iS DoOmeD ! WHaT !?11


Doomed? Certainly not financially. Creatively they've lost their spark. And that's putting it mildly.
Rating: 14 Votes
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jona2125
3 weeks ago

aPpLe iS DoOmeD ! WHaT !?11


The main thought process for that here internally at Apple is that they have done nothing but focus on climbing ladders as a company and losing foresight on consumer products. It's been dark here the last few years
Rating: 12 Votes
Avatar
Baymowe335
3 weeks ago

Well, I can safely say iMac & Mac Pro sales didn't contribute much to all that revenue.

I don't have a problem with diversity. But damn, Apple did you forget your roots? :(

Apple’s Mac business did $25.5B in sales in 2018. That is more than all of Netflix and EBay combined.
Rating: 7 Votes
Avatar
Remy149
3 weeks ago

The main thought process for that here internally at Apple is that they have done nothing but focus on climbing ladders as a company and losing foresight on consumer products. It's been dark here the last few years

You say this but I the Apple products I’ve bought in recent years are the best pieces of tech I’ve ever owned. Especially the series 4 Apple Watch
Rating: 7 Votes
Avatar
Fender2112
3 weeks ago
Well, I can safely say iMac & Mac Pro sales didn't contribute much to all that revenue.

I don't have a problem with diversity. But damn, Apple did you forget your roots? :(
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
Dragonlord_66
3 weeks ago
aPpLe iS DoOmeD ! WHaT !?11
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
citysnaps
3 weeks ago

The main thought process for that here internally at Apple is that they have done nothing but focus on climbing ladders as a company and losing foresight on consumer products. It's been dark here the last few years


I could not disagree more. The Apple products I've purchased over the last six or seven years have all been outstanding.

The reason Apple is so successful financially, is that the company produces premium products that many millions of satisfied repeat customers want to purchase recognizing excellent value, year after year after year. That's a good formula for success.
Rating: 4 Votes
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fathergll
3 weeks ago
Interesting that they were 56th and had superior pro computer options.
Rating: 3 Votes
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Baymowe335
3 weeks ago

This is true. Also true: AirPower.

Apple focuses on gimmicks pretending to be features: 3D Touch, APFS, portrait photos. Pressure sensitive UI is lame and boring. No one cares about a damn file system. And no phone should have 3 camera lenses—the trade off of aesthetics isn’t worth better quality photos.

Samsung innovates cool stuff we can brag about.

Yeah, since a previewed accessory almost everyone forgot about and a flagship mobile device you already shipped to customers are the same thing.
Rating: 3 Votes
Avatar
Khedron
3 weeks ago
Based on the way Apple fans rush to use profit as evidence of quality, I assume this news means everyone's iPhones magically just got a specs boost?
Rating: 3 Votes

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