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Microsoft No. 3 in Top Tech Company Report
Microsoft slipped to third place in a study of the world's top technology companies.
The second-annual Booz & Co. study, announced last week, ranked 50 companies spanning four disparate sectors. Those sectors included hardware, IT services, software or telecommunications. While the 50 companies differed quite a bit, all worked to foster the sort of digital technologies that businesses are adopting or will soon adopt, according to the study. The point of the study was to highlight those information, communications and technology (ICT) companies leading the way.
Microsoft had been No. 1 in Booz & Co.'s 2012 study of ICT companies. However, in the 2013 study, Microsoft slipped to third place behind IBM and Oracle. Google greatly improved in the 2013 study, moving from 32nd place in the 2012 study to eighth place in the 2013 study. Samsung moved up into the No. 10 spot. Amazon was a new addition to the 2013 study, becoming the 13th most valuable ICT company.
| Company |
Ranking 2013 |
Ranking 2012 |
| IBM |
1 |
3 |
| Oracle |
2 |
2 |
| Microsoft |
3 |
1 |
| SAP |
4 |
7 |
| Cisco Systems |
5 |
5 |
| Apple |
6 |
6 |
| Hewlett-Packard |
7 |
4 |
| Google |
8 |
32 |
| Accenture |
9 |
9 |
| Samsung |
10 |
36 |
| TCS |
11 |
24 |
| Infosys |
12 |
14 |
| Amazon |
13 |
New |
| Adobe |
14 |
20 |
| Atos |
15 |
31 |
| Ericsson |
16 |
12 |
| Fujitsu |
17 |
26 |
| HCL |
18 |
13 |
| Cognizant |
19 |
28 |
| Dell |
20 |
15 |
The Top 20 Global ICT Companies, 2012 vs. 2013. Source: Booz & Co.
|
The study based its rankings on a company's financial performance, portfolio strength, "go-to-market footprint," and innovation and branding. It omitted the hard data used to reach its conclusions. The report described Microsoft as being a "network infrastructure platform player" but it is also "a third-party consolidator" that is "betting its future on its ability to innovate."
"This is a very diverse way to play, with a risk of incoherence, and it's still not clear whether Microsoft can manage all this in the long run, even with its enormous platform advantage," the report states.
Even though the companies in Booz & Co.'s rankings are fairly different, they are "all beginning to come together as the hardware, software, IT services, and telecom sectors converge," the report contended. The report envisions a "battle of the ecosystems" happening in the hardware and software sectors that's focused either on the end user or on solutions for the enterprise. Meanwhile, the telecom sector will "continue to stagnate" because of the investments required for their networks, geographic constraints and "cultural challenges" in innovating.
The 18-page report, "Builders of the Digital Ecosystem: Booz & Company Global Information, Communications, and Technology 50 Study," can be downloaded here (requires registration).
About the Author
Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.