Apple has emerged as the world's largest vendor with more than $218 billion in IT revenue in the 2016 Top 100 list being compiled by US-based Gartner, a leading research and advisory company.

Apple has emerged as the world's largest vendor with more than $218 billion in IT revenue in the 2016 Top 100 list being compiled by US-based Gartner, a leading research and advisory company based on their revenue across IT (excluding communication services) and component market segments.

Apple's revenue was approximately $79 billion bigger than the second vendor, Samsung Vendor Group, said a statement from Gartner, which has, for the first time, published a ranking of the top 100 largest tech companies in the world based on estimates for their revenue across IT (excluding communication services) and component market segments. .

Gartner analysts presented these findings during the recently concluded Gartner Tech Growth & Innovation Conference, which was held in the US.

Technology business leaders can use the Gartner Global Top 100: IT to benchmark competitive performance against a shift from the Nexus of Forces (the convergence of social, mobility, cloud and information that drive new business scenarios) to digital business as the driver of IT purchasing.

John-David Lovelock, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, said: “The needs of IT buyers are shifting. CEOs are focused on growth and are more focused on realising business outcomes from their IT spend.”

“The Nexus of Forces has been the focus of attention for many years, however, the impact of digital business is giving rise to new categories,” he said.

The top three vendors (Apple, Samsung Vendor Group and Google) can attribute much of their size to their solid alignment with the Nexus of Forces. Microsoft was a large and influential company when the Nexus of Forces began, having grown to market leadership during the web and e-business phase, and has managed to pivot to remain relevant, it said.

IBM gained its size and market dominance in the very earliest IT markets when servers, storage and consulting services dominated. The need for these devices and services, along with mobile phones and PCs will remain — cloud will underpin all digital business initiatives — but they will become more commoditised and less of a driver for new projects and spending, it added.

As enterprises increasingly digitalise their products and services, digital giants (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent) can become involved in, or even take over, the digital experience. Gartner predicts that by 2021, 20 per cent of all activities an individual engages in will involve at least one of the top seven digital giants.

Lovelock said: "Digital giants effectively become gatekeepers for any business that delivers digital content and services to consumers.”

“Any company that wants to engage consumers in, or through, their digital world will have to consider engaging with one or more of these digital giants,” he added.

The focus of the digital giants has mainly been in the consumer, citizen and employee world. Because the digital giants have not yet been as focused on business to business (B2B), there is opportunity for other companies to take the lead.

Lovelock continued: “In the B2B world of selling technology solutions to large enterprises, some of the digital giants have already had significant impact.”

“For example, Amazon Web Services' cloud is disrupting enterprise hardware and software businesses dramatically. Apple's iOS devices are dominant within enterprise mobility, and Google's presence beyond search into browsers, cloud office and more is growing,” he added. - TradeArabia News Service