Apple maintains revenue leadership by wide margin

In the third quarter of 2013, Apple continued to maintain its staggering revenues to lead all its competitors – despite seeing only “modest” growth during this period and in, fact, seeing a drop in annual profits through the year.Apple ended the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2013 with $37.47 billion in operating revenues, representing a 4.2 percent growth in comparison with the same quarter last year. Meanwhile Microsoft and Amazon enjoyed the considerable growth of 15.7 percent and 23.8 percent, respectively. Apple was more than ever operating in a completely different league. The company’s total revenues were more than double that of its closest competitor Microsoft, which had $18.53 billion in operating revenues during the same period.Interestingly, with its more rapid growth, Amazon’s revenues approached those of Microsoft, whose $17.09 billion topped Google, which dropped from No. 3 spot to No. 4 with $14.89 billion in operating revenues.In the case of Apple, its big profitability came largely from the knockout sales of its new model iPhone, of which it sold more than 9 million on the weekend of its debut alone. By the end of the quarter, Apple had sold 33.8 million iPhones worldwide.