Apple elbows Google aside to become Silicon Valley's most valuable company

> So yeah, Apple has issued more stock, and by stock prices it is more "valuable".

Are you saying you can create value simply by splitting the stock? :)

All I can think of right now is this: "Short Apple, buy Google"

Building products is HARD, even when you have a completely dedicated fanbase. Fixed costs per unit are just too high. Physical store presence is needed. Things come back on warranty. Support costs are high.

The difference is that not only does Google have none of those drawbacks, but their product actually becomes more valuable as more people use it (more statistical significance on predictions and tests, finer grained advertising offerins, etc). So, in other words, their sources of revenue get more value out of Google even if they are only targeting the same raw number of people, because it will better optimized.

Also, Google's per user costs are so low and the scalability of any software they design or buyout is so high that they have a much, much higher chance of ten folding their earnings in the next two years than Apple does. And at the end of the day, I don't look past two years when investing.

I suspect Apple will do a watch or in-car device. Both are ubiquitous electronic personal devices not yet Apple'fied. For it to occur, it depends on some new technology to come along that Apple can integrate into them better than others.

-- I think a watch will happen when rfid or other eps devices replace cash