Top 10 IT companies 2010

This list shows the largest IT companies in the world, ranked by IT revenues. IT revenues include Software, Hardware and IT Services revenues in the year 2009. Most of the world's top 10 IT companies offer a full range of hardware, software and services. On average, hardware generates the highest revenues in the IT industry, followed by services and software.

Leaders
HP is the world's largest IT company with 2009 revenues of $116 billion. Since its acquisition of Compaq, HP became the top hardware vendor, and has retained the top spot ever since. HP has also been one of the 10 largest software companies since many years; currently HP ranks 7th in the Software Top 100. In 2008 the acquisition EDS, a 22 billion dollar company, turned HP into one of the largest IT services companies in the world, ranked 2nd after IBM in the Services Top 100.

Samsung is the only company in the top 10 which managed to increase revenues compared to last year. In total revenues, Samsung Electronics is larger than HP, but in terms of IT revenues Samsung clearly ranks 2nd at $76 billion.

IBM is 3rd on the IT companies list, very close behind Samsung. IBM generates most of its $75 billion revenues through rendering of services. Besides being the largest IT services company in the world, IBM is also the second largest software company and a top twenty hardware company.

Regions
IT has become a truly global industry. Five companies in this list are from the US, four from Asia and one from Europe. Many products are made in Asia, even if a companies' headquarters is in the US.
Foxconn, headquartered in Taiwan, manufacters hardware products for other IT companies, like HP, Nokia, Dell, Cisco, Intel, Motorola and Apple. After years of spectacular growth, recently the company has had much bad publicity about its tough labour conditions.

Sectors
Microsoft is the only company in the top 10 with revenues coming largely from software. Microsoft is also the most profitable company in the list. Despite increasing competition, the company manages to retain the leading position in the software industry.
Two mobile phone- and network companies are in the top 10, Nokia and Fujitsu both generate over $50 billion yearly with sales of communications products. Competitors Ericsson and Motorola are also in the top 25, and Chinese network supplier Huawei will soon be in it as well, as it is one of the fastest growing technology companies in the world.

Outlook
After a difficult year, recent signals indicate improved conditions for the IT industry. Intel posted record quarterly revenues in Q2 2010. Other technology funds, like Microsoft and SanDisk also showed relatively strong results. As the economy rebounds further, the IT industry is likely to profit more than proportionally.

Sustainability
2009 saw increased public attention for environmental issues and corporate sustainability, and It companies moved in accordance, taking 'green' servers and datacenters to market, and taking measures to reduce the large quantities of hazardous substances traditionally used in IT production facilities. Network supplier Cisco received credits from Greenpeace for its sustainability efforts: Greenpeace says Cisco is the leading IT company in the fight to stop climate change.

More IT companies and rankings can be found in the Software Top 100, Hardware Top 100 and Services Top 100.