It goes to show that you never can tell. On a year-over-year basis, Apple is not doing as well as it did last year. That being said, when it comes to third quarter 2013 operating revenue, Apple comes in with more than double what the number two spot can claim.

For Apple, this represents its fiscal 2013 fourth quarter. The figures for Apple come in at $37.47 billion in operating revenue. This is a 4.2 percent increase as compared to this time last year. Even though the number two and three spots, held by Microsoft and Amazon.com Inc. respectively, saw significant growth with 15.7 percent for Microsoft and 23.8 percent for Amazon, they still both sit way below Apple.

This moved Amazon up into third place knocking Google down to fourth place. This is true even though Google was at $14.89 billion which is a 5.6 percent increase year-over-year. You can see the ratings from the chart below;

It looks like the strong operating revenue numbers for Apple are due to impressive sales of the new iPhone 5S. Over nine million devices were sold. This occurred in just the first weekend that the iPhone 5S went on sale in September. It helps that for the first time, the iPhone was available in both China and Japan’s NTT DoCoMo.

In fact, Japan saw unexpected high growth within any region in the third quarter. This increased Japan’s revenue by at least 41 percent. The total for all devices, that Apple sold by the end of the quarter was 33.8 million. Year-over-year saw the total go up by 26 percent.

One surprising factor is that the iPhone 5C might finally be gaining a little speed. As you recall, the 5C is Apple’s first foray in using a plastic back. In addition, it is what can be considered a watered down version of the 5S.

It appears that one of the world’s largest and significant emerging markets is seeing the 5C momentum. Last week, the Indian Express reported that both the iPhone 5S and 5C are outselling comparable Samsung Galaxy models.

Unlike Apple, Microsoft did not struggle to maintain consistent, companywide forward momentum. It is reported that if not for the strong growth that Apple saw from Japan, the results might have been different. If you look at the tablet side, the iPad gained very little year-over-year. In addition, Mac and iPod sales continued to decline.

The standing are a little different if you look at the top 25 new media companies as they are ranked by third quarter 2013 net income;

As we have seen before with Apple, it did not break out the difference between sales of iPhone 5S and 5C. In fact, in October we saw that Apple was significantly reducing the number of 5C units that its two manufacturers were producing. However, that seems to be taking a turn.

Microsoft’s CFO, Any Hood, said that she expected the launch of the Xbox One to be the “biggest in history.” According to the Wall Street Journal, his was proven to be a correct statement. The first 24 hours saw over one million units being sold.

Not surprising, Amazon saw a lot of growth during what can be called the pre-holiday-bonanza period. Unfortunately, its blockbuster revenue was tempered by its income being in the red. Non-the-less, Amazon is gearing up for what could be an incredible holiday season as more people are expected to do most of their shopping online.