Fortune has published the list of the world’s most admired companies, putting Apple in the first position when it comes to all industry sectors, and Microsoft on the leading spot for the software business.

Fortune’s research involves 3,800 executives, analysts, directors, and experts who expressed their votes on the world’s most admired companies from a wide variety of industries. Apple is the leading brand in the charts, followed by Amazon, Starbucks, Berkshire Hathaway, Disney, and Alphabet (the group that owns Google).

Microsoft is on the 9th position in this chart, just after Facebook, and this represents an important increase from the 17th place last year.

But as far as computer software is concerned, Microsoft remains the world’s most admired software company, after previously being ranked the second in 2016.

Fortune says Microsoft is the leading name in terms of use of corporate assets, quality of management, financial soundness, long-term investment values, and global competitiveness, and the runner-up when it comes to people management and social responsibility. Microsoft is ranked third for innovation and fourth for quality of products and services.

Mobile first, cloud first

The number one company in Fortune’s top when it comes to innovation is Alphabet, which also ranks first for global competitiveness, long-term investment value, financial soundness, and social responsibility. On the other hand, Alphabet is only fifth for the use of corporate assets.

Microsoft can’t be anything but pleased with these statistics, and the one to thank for is none other than the company’s CEO Satya Nadella, who is pushing the software giant towards the already-famous mobile first, cloud first world.

Cloud services are already generating substantial revenue for Microsoft and this is one of the main reasons the company keeps investing in this sector, with hardware divisions like Surface also posting impressive growth. Of course, not the same thing can be said about phones, but this is one of the businesses where Microsoft is still struggling in both consumer and enterprise.