Apple maintains No. 1 tech firm by revenue

SEOUL, June 21 (Yonhap) -- U.S. tech giant Apple Inc. maintained its status as the world's top IT firm by sales in 2016, data showed Wednesday.

According to the data compiled by industry tracker Gartner Inc., Apple posted US$218.1 billion in sales last year, hovering far above the $139.1 billion posted by South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co.

Other major players included U.S.-based Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., and IBM, which posted sales of $90.1 billion, $85.7 billion, and $77.8 billion, respectively, the data also showed.

Gartner said the so-called Nexus of Forces, which refers to the "convergence of social, mobility, cloud and information that drive new business scenarios," helped the major players to post decent growth.

"As enterprises increasingly digitalize 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," it added.

colin@yna.co.kr
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