Apple Now the Second Largest Online Retailer in the World Behind Amazon: Survey

While Apple is best known for its phones, tablets and computers, the company has been able to build a successful e-commerce business, and now, it is the second biggest online retailer in the world, according to new data from Internet Retailer. Amazon remains the biggest - by a huge margin - but this shows why companies like Amazon are also reported to be looking into hardware development.

(Also see: Alleged Amazon Smartphone's First Leaked Press Render Hits the Web)

A post in the Wall Street Journal cites trade publication Internet Retailer's numbers, stating that Apple saw a 24% increase in online sales, up from $14.7 billion in 2012 to $18.3 billion in 2013, taking it past the office supplies seller Staples, which was second after Amazon earlier.

Looking at the data in the post, most of the companies have been having reasonably flat years, with just a handful of notable exceptions. Amazon, Apple and American retail corporation Walmart all showed growth over the last three years, though at $67.8 billion in 2013 (up from $56.4 billion in 2013), Amazon is still very firmly in the lead - ahead of the next ten biggest competitors combined.

WSJ has an interesting interactive chart of the figures here.

Of course, part of the reason that Apple has seen a big jump is because of the inclusion of Apple's online hardware sales, and not just digital sales from the App Store and iTunes.

At the same time, the digital sales continue to be an important part of Apple's revenues. At the start of this year, Apple revealed that the App Store sales in 2013 topped $10 billion dollars - of which $1 billion came in December alone, with 3 billion apps being downloaded that month.

With over a million apps available to iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users across 155 countries, without even taking into account iTunes media sales, it's easy to see that the app economy is a major force.

With its retail presence online also growing fast, Apple continues to expand its footprint on many fronts. With this kind of model in front of them, it's not a surprise that Amazon and others are trying to become the next Apple, before Apple can take away room for everyone else to grow.