San Francisco: In the wake of dwindling iPhone sales amid overall sluggish global smartphone growth, Apple fell from the first position in 2018 to the 17th spot in the annual “50 Most Innovative Companies list for 2019” by US-based business publication Fast Company.
Last year, on the basis of innovations like AirPods, Augmented Reality (AR) and iPhone X, Apple secured the first spot and this year the company is only credited for its “A12 Bionic” processor which has been incorporated in the iPhone XS and iPhone XR models.
“Apple’s most impressive new product of 2018 was the ‘A12 Bionic’ chip that debuted as the industry’s first processor based on a seven-nanometer manufacturing process,” said the report.
‘A12 Bionic” processor is the industry’s first 7nm chipset manufactured with a six-core CPU, four-core GPU and an upgraded eight-core Neural Engine with 6.9 billion transistors that deliver dramatically faster performance.
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Chinese on-demand service platform Meituan Dianping topped the list, followed by Singapore based ride-hailing company Grab. Meituan Dianping helps in faster booking and delivery of services such as hotel stays and food.
Others in the list were Square, Twitch, Shopify, Peloton, Alibaba and Truepic.
“Our 2019 ranking of the businesses making the most profound impact on both industry and culture showcases a variety of ways to thrive in today’s volatile world,” said Fast Company which judged nominations received through an application process.
The innovation benchmarking was done on the most profound impact on both industry and culture.
Amid sales drops and losses, Apple is expected to refresh its offerings in iPad, MacBook Pro, 6K monitors and iPhone categories in 2019.
In the fourth quarter of 2018, sales of Apple iPhones hit 64.5 million units, recording its worst quarterly decline (11.8 per cent) since the first quarter of 2016, according to Gartner.
Apple saw iPhone demand weaken in most regions, except North America and Asia/Pacific.
For 2018 as a whole, iPhone sales were down 2.7 percent, to just over 209 million units, said Gartner.
[source_without_link]IANS[/source_without_link]