Fortune magazine released its annual rankings of American corporations today, and Hewlett-Packard maintained a spot in the Top 10 companies as measured by revenues. HP slipped one spot to No. 10, just as perennial leader ExxonMobil slipped to No. 2. WalMart leads the 2010 list with revenues of $408 billion -- and profits of $14 billion.

When measured against other computer makers on the list, HP's $114 billion leads by a comfy margin. The next three suppliers of systems: IBM at No. 20 ($95.7 billion) Dell at No. 38 ($52 billion) and Apple at No. 56 ($36 billion). The real trick in this kind of measurement victory is profits, however. HP posted $7.6 billion, while IBM earned close to twice as much at $13.4 billion on 20 percent less sales. (Dell eked out $1.4 billion, but Apple reported $5.7 billion.) In profits, HP ranks 17 and IBM is No. 5.

These numbers matter because HP touts them to prospects and reports them to customers, suggesting that bigger is a safer choice. HP 3000 sites who are choosing migration environments, or outsourcing the 3000's IT ops to major vendors, are encouraged to feel more secure in their own boardrooms because HP remains big.

The Fortune 500 is a phrase quoted often to measure the success of a system vendor's solutions, too. HP's partners invoke the F500 incantation as well, all to demonstrate that large-scale customers maintain their investments in HP solutions. In an American business sector much closer to the HP 3000's roots, the company says it services 1 billion Medicaid claims per year and manages $100 billion in assets.