Apple is the largest tech vendor worldwide followed by Samsung and Google

IT research firm, Gartner has unveiled the top 100 largest tech vendors in the world IT in 2016 based on their revenue across IT (excluding communication services) and component market segments.

Apple has secured the position of the largest vendor with more than $218 billion in IT revenue in the Gartner Global Top 100: IT vendors. Apple has also beaten its nearest competitor, Samsung Vendor Group with approximately $79 billion more revenue. Samsung has emerged as the second large vendor with $139 billion in IT revenue.

Microsoft and IBM both have slipped from their 2015 ranking and ended up in the fourth and fifth position in the list, while Google has been able to brush the competition aside to emerge as the third large vendor with $90 billion revenue.

Here's the top five worldwide vendors by IT and Components revenue, 2016 (Billions of Dollars):

Source: Gartner (June 2017)

Among the 100 companies, AT&T, Dell Technologies, Intel, HP, HPE are the companies who have been able to secure their positions into the top ten list.

Rise of Digital Giants:

The focus of the digital giants has mainly been in the consumer, citizen and employee world. Because the digital giants have not yet been as focused on business to business (B2B), but some of the digital giants have already had significant impact.

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.

"For example, Amazon Web Services' cloud is disrupting enterprise hardware and software businesses dramatically. Apple's iOS devices are dominant within enterprise mobility, and Google's presence beyond search into browsers, cloud office and more is growing," said John-David Lovelock, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.

Gartner predicts that by 2021, 20 percent of all activities an individual engages in will involve at least one of the top seven digital giants.

The Gartner Global Top 100: IT list can also be used to understand how companies are spending their IT budgets and also to benchmark competitive performance against a shift from the Nexus of Forces (the convergence of social, mobility, cloud and information that drive new business scenarios) to digital business as the driver of IT purchasing.

"The needs of IT buyers are shifting. CEOs are focused on growth and are more focused on realizing business outcomes from their IT spend," said Lovelock. "The Nexus of Forces has been the focus of attention for many years, however, the impact of digital business is giving rise to new categories."

The top three vendors (Apple, Samsung Vendor Group and Google) can attribute much of their size to their solid alignment with the Nexus of Forces. Microsoft was a large and influential company when the Nexus of Forces began, having grown to market leadership during the web and e-business phase, and has managed to pivot to remain relevant. IBM gained its size and market dominance in the very earliest IT markets when servers, storage and consulting services dominated. The need for these devices and services, along with mobile phones and PCs will remain — cloud will underpin all digital business initiatives — but they will become more commoditized and less of a driver for new projects and spending.