After climbing up the Fortune 500 rankings the past few years, Apple is standing firm in the No. 5 spot it reached last year.
Walmart grabbed the top spot, followed by oil giants Exxon and Chevron, with Apple hanging in thanks to strong iPhone and Mac sales, although
Fortune noted slumping iPad sales are a point of concern.
Fortune‘s rankings of the top 500 companies in the United States were released today, and here’s what the mag had to say about Apple’s incredible year:
“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.”
‘Sky-high expectations from investors and consumers’ is listed as one of Apple’s biggest weakness with Android and cheap Chinese knock offs also being potential threats. Apple is set to unveil its biggest software upgrades of the year next week at WWDC. Apple Pay and HomeKit could make an appearance, but the ‘long-rumored streaming television service’ Fortune lists as Apple’s only big opportunity right now won’t be ready in time.
Source: Fortune