Despite a year in which many analysts decried a slowdown in iPhone sales, Apple has climbed one spot in the Fortune 500 rankings to cement third place for the year.
Fortune’s list is based purely on revenue, with only Walmart (#1) and Exxon Mobil (#2) beating Apple on that metric. Amazon (#5) is the only other big tech company in the top ten, with Google, Facebook, and Microsoft not taking in as much revenue.
This means Apple leapfrogs Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, just days after partnering with Buffet on a silly iPhone game about delivering newspapers. Still, he owns so much Apple stock we’re sure he doesn’t mind being pipped to third.
Here’s what Fortune has to say about Apple’s year:
“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.”
Fortune is right to focus on Apple’s move into services. Over the next 12 months expect to see much more on that front, with Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, and Apple Card all due for launch later this year.
Finally, it’s worth noting that Apple actually tops the rankings for most profitable company by quite a margin, and also clocks in first in the tech sector ahead of its industry rivals.