Category: Apple Inc.

Top 10 tech companies in 2020

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During this tough 2020, some old giants are already bellied up, while the tech companies are developing immunity to COVID-19.

The Tech sector is the driver of the global economy now. 

Let’s see the top 10 tech companies that are ruling the world this 2020. Here you will see e-commerce, media, software, hardware, with massive market capitalization! 

1. Apple Inc.

Apple started the year with a bit more than 1 trillion USD value. By the end of August, it raised to 2.22 trillion USD! 

Co-founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976, Apple became a public company (IPO) in 1980.

A strategic vision drove it first to manufacturing desktop computers, and later to mobile devices, tablets, and wearables. Producing popular products with big margins led the brand to success. Currently, ‘services’ is another key to its value.

2. Amazon Inc.

1.74 trillion USD made Amazon the second colossus on this ranking.

Founded by Jeff Bezos (1994) to sell books online, it grew as an e-commerce leader selling pretty much everything. In 1997, it became a public company. 

Diversification has been vital for Amazon, which nowadays is much more than e-commerce. Cloud computing, digital video and music streaming, publishing, film and TV studios, and artificial intelligence (AI) are significant branches.

3. Microsoft Corporation

1.70 trillion USD sent Microsoft to the third position in the top 10 tech companies in 2020.

Created by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975, Microsoft developed user-friendly software for PC. Products such as the MS-DOS operating system and later, Windows, boosted the company, becoming public in 1986. 

Innovation but mostly adaptation, have been its keys to keep expanding through the time, no matter the large number of competitors.

Now Microsoft also means hardware, smart devices, mobiles, apps, games, servers, cloud services, machine learning, and AI. 

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4. Alphabet Inc.

1.11trillion USD placed Alphabet in the fourth spot. It is obvious, because we are talking about Google. Created in 2015, Alphabet became the head on top of Google and many more sub-companies.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page founded this conglomerate in 1993. Now it is far more than a little search engine. It changed “search for it” to “google it,” and that’s a great success!  

Develop innovative, excellent services, and big acquisitions are the company’s strength that today owns YouTube, GMaps, GApps, GCloud, GVenture, GCapital, and much more.

5. Facebook Inc.

The fifth place in the top 10 tech companies goes for Facebook and its 0.84 trillion USD value.

The social networking company was born in 2004 when officially, Mark Zuckerberg launched it as a website from his university dorm. The site got very popular, and in 2012, Facebook had its IPO.

Daily, an average of 1.79 billion users log into the platform. Its growth, both in terms of users and value, has been massive. To fuel the expansion, Facebook made some significant acquisitions like Instagram, Whatsapp, and Oculus VR.

6. Alibaba Group

A 0.76 trillion USD Asian giant comes on the stage. 

In 1999, Jack Ma and 17 more partners created a website to sell internationally, goods from small Chinese exporters and manufacturers. 

Alibaba arose as an international leader in online and mobile commerce, becoming public in 2014. It was the largest IPO ever! 

Now, Alibaba Group leads online retail, electronic paymentS, shopping search engine services, cloud computing, digital media, entertainment, etc.

7. Tencent Holdings Ltd.

7th place with 0.65 trillion USD goes to another Chinese company.

It was founded in 1998 and rapidly grown as the most used Internet service portal. In 2004, Tencent Holdings Limited went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The conglomerate involves e-commerce, payment systems, social networks, and games. Titles like “League of Legends” and “Fortnite” are globally popular.

8. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC)

A 0.38 trillion USD value leads TSMC to the eighth spot.

Established by Morris Chang (1987) as a foundry business, TSMC became the largest worldwide company dedicated to semiconductors. 

Its chips are present in automotive, electronics, and various industrial equipment. Nvidia, Qualcomm, Intel, and Apple are just a few of its clients.

9. Samsung

0.36 trillion USD is the value of the South Korean Samsung.

Lee Byung-Chull created Samsung (1938) as a grocery trading store. From trading noodles, local goods, later textiles, it jumped to producing the textiles and investing in petrochemical industries.

In 1969, Samsung got into the electronics industry. 

Televisions, home appliances, semiconductors, genetic engineering tools, aerospace, shipbuilding, memory chips, integrated systems, nanotech, smartphones, life insurance… Evolution and expansion, the keys to Samsung’s success.

10. Nvidia Corporation

Closing the top 10 tech companies with Nvidia (0.32 trillion USD).

Jen-Hsun Huang, Christopher Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem founded it in 1993 to create microprocessors for PC’s to empower full-motion video and stereo sound. The computer gaming sector got so interested in its products.

The global graphic processor producer is present in gaming and video edition, apps, data centers, AI, robotics, cryptocurrency mining, self-driving cars, and more.

Why Apple is moving to ARM chips is a huge deal!

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Apple is planning to completely replace Intel as its chip supplier. The change will start very soon. But don’t be afraid, this is actually a great thing for people who love the Apple ecosystem. 

What is ARM? 

At the moment, almost every mobile phone out there uses an ARM processor. ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) is an architecture that promises better battery life, uses less power, and potentially similar performance to Intel’s and AMD’s chips. 

Apart from that, you can benefit from features like always-connected devices that have 4G or 5G connection. Imagine if it gets usual to have mobile connectivity on almost any laptop. It will be great! 

Devices powered by ARM chips are also less power-hungry. This allows fanless designs that are lighter and more portable. To be honest, current-gen laptops are light enough, but even a small improvement is welcome. 

With ARM chips, Apple will be able to control better their releases of new products. Now they are strongly connected to Intel’s schedule, and with all the delays in the past years, this is hard to plan.  

Why now? 

Intel has been struggling for a long time. They continuously delay their 10nm processors. There are just a few available right now, and the future doesn’t look bright for team Blue. They are so much behind that they are trying to collaborate with TSMC to keep up with the competition. AMD is already on 7nm architecture, so are the mobile chip producers, and we are almost at 5nm size already. 

The other big problem is the price. Intel’s chips are expensive. It is a company with a dominating position on the market of computer processors for a long time. So far, they were capable of charging extra for that. 

Also, if you have checked the market of devices with Windows on ARM, you will see that they are starting to be good. Yes, a 64bit application emulator is missing, but Snapdragon 8cx is quite capable of native 64bit apps. It will be a shame to stay behind! 

What could go wrong? 

ARM may not be powerful enough. Yes, we all have seen how powerful the iPhone is, in comparison with Android phones. But how does it compare to Intel Core processors for typical work? 

Not enough software. Apple has provided excellent options for the developers to create universal apps for both macOS and iOS (Universal 2 application binaries). This will come in handy in the future, but what about now? Can we use all the apps from macOS without losing performance due to emulation? Apple promise “translation” of the apps during installation with Rosetta 2. We need to test that. 

ARM can get expensive. ARM is for sale, and it can end in anybody’s hands. Apple has a license for its custom architecture, but what if the price for that license increases in the future? Apple can get completely dependent on a single company. And if you are thinking, why Apple just buy ARM, forget it. It will be too much of a hustle for Apple. It will lead to serious anti-monopoly problems. 

So? 

First, ARM-powered Apple computers are coming this fall. Are you going to get one? Or you prefer to wait a few years to be sure that they are here to stay. I will probably get one to play with it. I am a bit worried about software compatibility and how developers will translate their apps to the new platform. I have seen a great first look, but I need to get one in my hands. 

Stay tuned and let’s see how this develops.