IT Services

The biggest IT vendors in the world by revenue

Staff Writer

 ·20 Jun 2017

Research and advisory company, Gartner, has published the top global 100 vendors in IT in 2016 based on their revenue across IT and component market segments.

Apple is listed as the largest vendor with more than $218 billion in IT revenue — approximately $79 billion larger than second placed Samsung Vendor Group, while Google is third.

Gartner said that the top three vendors can attribute much of their size to their solid alignment with the Nexus of Forces – the convergence of social, mobility, cloud and information that drive new business scenarios.

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, the advisory firm 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, Gartner said.

As organisations increasingly digitalise their products and services, Gartner said that digital giants like 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% of all activities an individual engages in will involve at least one of the top seven digital giants.

“Digital giants effectively become gatekeepers for any business that delivers digital content and services to consumers,” said John-David Lovelock, VP and analyst at Gartner. “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.”

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, Gartner said.

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

Top 15 vendors by IT and Components Revenue in 2016

Oracle, Huawei, and Cisco also feature in the top 20 of Gartner’s list.

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