by , 9:50 AM EDT, May 26th, 2006

Business 2.0 released its 2006 ranking of the top 100 fastest growing technology companies, and Apple came in at number three. The list is based publicly traded companies that have a market capitalization of at least US$50 million, and had a positive cash flow during the past 12 months.

Apple's annual revenue growth of 35.4 percent and 123 percent stock return was enough to propel it third place behind Celgene with 52.8 percent revenue growth and 144 percent stock return, and Red Hat's 41 percent growth and 104 percent stock return.

Business 2.0 credits the introduction of the 1GB iPod nano at $199 and the Mac mini as contributors to Apple's success in 2005. In last year's list, Apple came in at 16.

Adobe Systems ranked number 91, and other familiar companies, like Dell and Microsoft, were not on the list.