Apple Inc's ranking, on the other hand, plummeted from the first spot last year to No 17 in 2019. "They didn't really break new ground with their devices, and hardware sales were sluggish," Fast Company senior editor Amy Farley told CNBC on Wednesday.

But Apple's A12 Bionic chip was regarded the company's most impressive new product of 2018, since it is the industry's first processor based on a seven-nanometer manufacturing process with faster performance and lower power consumption, Fast Company said.