Here’s a selection of top tech companies that revolutionised the way we engage with technology, and also each other.
Laptops, PCs, smart phones, tablets, and wearable devices place information at only a thought away.
Through the evolving power of intelligent devices, people are exchanging and receiving Internet resources as part of daily life.
Efforts in developing the Internet of Things (IoT) will further see the cross-pollination of data and the human experience.
However, who are the tech giants that make these developments possible?
From computers in every home, to answers a click away, here are some of the top tech companies that changed the world.
After hitting the online scene in 2004, Facebook is synonymous with social networking, and stalking from the comforts of home.
In its embryonic start-up days it targeted students in higher education, before blooming into one of the biggest communication tools in the world.
Mark Zuckerberg is the chairman, chief executive officer, and co-founder of Facebook. However, the full story of its origins exists under a veil of murky controversy.
Accessed via desktop or smart device, it continues to revolutionise the standards for user-generated content on the web. It indexes contacts based on users who directly follow each other, and also suggests potential relationships through secondary connections.
Its reach is staggering.
On average, it handles 1.23 billion active users per day, with daily active mobile users reaching 1.15 billion.
Unsurprisingly, Facebook is a fundamental resource for exchanging ideas, services, and experiences. As such, any company aiming to engage with, or convert consumers harnesses it as part of a successful business model.
It facilitates spying on an ex, too.
The most powerful search engine in the world, of all the top tech companies Google is the modern oracle for all who seek answers.
Created in 1995 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders named their fledgling archival tool after a googol, a numerical beast of 1 preceding 100 zeros. Their efforts to prioritise the almost infinite amount of data on the web live up to this inspiration.
That the owners constructed their first server rack from LEGO provides insight into the enduring creativity fuelling the global enterprise.
Brands such as Android, YouTube, and Smartbox feature in Google’s gargantuan portfolio of products. Applications such as Chrome, Translate, Maps, and Gmail are aspects of daily life that most of us couldn’t live without.
An open platform of almost limitless resources, its queries range from the weather, to symptom-checking.
As such, the amount of queries Google processes requires a degree of mental gymnastics.
It handles up to 40,000 searches per second, which is 3.5 billion per day, which is 1.2 trillion a year.
Needless to say, that’s a lot.
However, Google is progressing into more than just a search portal.
With an eye on providing answers yet to be asked, the applications of AI and machine learning are now part of its bid to harness the future.
Microsoft
As far as top tech companies go, Microsoft was at the helm of common practices today.
From soaring victories to calamitous failures, its story is as gripping as Homer’s epic poems.
Tech pundits herald it as the first real software company whose operating system inspired countless copies thereafter.
Microsoft reprogrammed the computing world in 1975, and experts credit it for championing PCs in everyone home.
The impact of this cultural innovation still reverberates today. The personal relationship it created between humankind and technology is now seen in the smartphone’s ubiquitous presence.
An ongoing theme in Microsoft’s history, however, is being too innovative for its time.
It pioneered Windows Mobile, Pocket PC, and Windows CE in an effort to make intelligent phones. While its efforts were perfected in devices such as the iPhone, its forward-thinking has continually influenced competitors.
It also revolutionised gaming. Through Xbox, it set the standard for multiple gamers on broadband-connected consoles.
Other technological tidbits include throwing Apple a $150 million loan, and creating smart TV in the form of Media Center.
While its current performance lags behind that of earlier years, perhaps its merger with Nokia will improve its market standing.
However, it’s fair to say that its innovations are the basis of computing standards today.