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Apple is Officially Worth More than Microsoft

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Re: Apple is Officially Worth More than Microsoft

#121

Post by light3 »

elblanco wrote: post #114
dcurtis wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is kind of pedantic, but I think the word valuable might be better here than largest . Apple is relatively small when compared to companies like Walmart, which has 2.1 million employees and almost 8x revenue.

value is also an almost meaningless term. How many times have we all seen the infomercials that sell some gadget at a $50 "value" but they'll sell it to you for only $19.95?

I think they refer to market value or in this case market capitalisation, which is well defined as share price * # of shares. Both prices you listed are just the asking prices, the true market value will be somewhere between the bid and ask prices. The bid ask spread in a liquid market is small under 'normal' circumstances, eg Apple shares bid/ask is currently 243.50 x 400/244.00 x 2600, people willing to buy 400 shares at $243.50 and sell 2600 shares at $244.

Re: Apple is Officially Worth More than Microsoft

#122

Post by jedberg »

dcurtis wrote: post #88
jedberg wrote: post #13

I think the more interesting news here is that Apple is now the second largest company in America (about $50 billion behind Exxon).

This is kind of pedantic, but I think the word valuable might be better here than largest . Apple is relatively small when compared to companies like Walmart, which has 2.1 million employees and almost 8x revenue.

You're right -- I should have either said "most valuable" or "largest by market cap".

Re: Apple is Officially Worth More than Microsoft

#123

Post by jstevens85 »

dejb wrote: post #98

This surprises me given that it seems pretty clear they are about to lose their projected dominance in the smartphone game to Android. I can't see how you can justify that sort of valuation without projecting them to be the dominant smartphone platform. The iPad seems to be doing well but it all hinges on the same OS as the iPhone. Is it possible that Jobs "reality distortion" field is now working on the market?

Why is it clear that they'll lose the #2 spot to Android? It certainly may happen, but it doesn't appear to be anywhere near certain. Notice that at Google I/O, they said that Android was #2 in the US. Why didn't they say in the world, or in the US and Canada, or in the US and Europe, or even in the US and Australia? Obviously it's because the US is the only major market where they've been able to beat Apple. If Apple announces a multiple carrier version of the iPhone at WWDC, I would say it's likely that Google would lose the #2 spot in the US.

Re: Apple is Officially Worth More than Microsoft

#124

Post by [deleted] »

dcurtis wrote: post #88
jedberg wrote: post #13

I think the more interesting news here is that Apple is now the second largest company in America (about $50 billion behind Exxon).

This is kind of pedantic, but I think the word valuable might be better here than largest . Apple is relatively small when compared to companies like Walmart, which has 2.1 million employees and almost 8x revenue.

[deleted]

Re: Apple is Officially Worth More than Microsoft

#125

Post by awa »

raphar wrote: post #27
Jun8 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly! One of the best essay in PG's H&Ps book in my opinion was the one that explains how winning doesn't have to be a zero-sum game, you can generate wealth. This seems a no brainer but a lot of people don't get it. Many predict that a similar thing will happen in the battle between Google and Apple.

It interesting view this google vs apple in: http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:AAPL+goog put the graph to 1y or 5y.

Add MSFT and put the graph in Max, gives another interesting perspective

Re: Apple is Officially Worth More than Microsoft

#126

Post by brandonkm »

hugh3 wrote: post #37
jpablo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll bet facebook has more impact than Apple. Apple makes your iPod, that let's me listen to music. Facebook creates your social life (for a lot of people it does).

Even if that were true, I give money to Apple and I don't give any money to facebook. Apple extracts thousands of dollars directly from my wallet, while facebook just sells my wandering eyeballs.

This thought occured to me the other day as I wondered in the Apple store to just look and walked out with my wallet $1500 lighter. In less than 45 minutes Apple extracted more money from me than Facebook ever did during the five years I used that site. Despite eyeballs, large numbers of users, and other assorted impressive metrics, there's still something to be said for functional (physical) products that solve problems and a solid product line.

Re: Apple is Officially Worth More than Microsoft

#127

Post by loewenskind »

nitrogen wrote: post #120
jackowayed wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iPods and iPhones are competitively priced. Sure, the Macs are expensive, but the hardware is very high quality, and when you compare them to Thinkpads and Vaios--other high-end computers--it's pretty reasonable. I'm no Apple fanboy (as of now, the only money I've ever given Apple is 30% of app purchases I've made for my hand-me-down iPhone 2G), but in a couple of days, I'm buying a MacBook Pro because it's a high qu…

My experience with my first Mac has not been one of it "Just Working." I get periodic whole-screen graphics corruption (I took a photo of the screen with my digital camera I was so surprised), infinite loops when connecting to shared folders if I type the URI wrong, and other issues. Plus, its UI is a lot slower than the custom PC I paid the same price for. It mostly sits unused now.

Then you should have taken advantage of the other thing Mac does extremely well: support. There is obviously something wrong with your machine. Or did you think we're all just suffering through this, embarrased that we paid so much for a machine that doesn't run?

Re: Apple is Officially Worth More than Microsoft

#128

Post by steveklabnik »

buster wrote: post #66
ashot wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you can't compare stock prices directly, they have no relative meaning

Mh, yes, now that i think of it... my first thought was "woah, i'll have to pay 10 times as much for one apple share", but in reality i'd just say "in invest 1000$ in whatever company, regardless of how many shares".. if the share goes up 10% it doesn't matter how many shares.. well.. my bad, as i said, i've no real interest in that stuff :P So, all in all, this means that Apple is seen as much worth as MS (and not 1…

> Still, i would really like to see the income sources of both and how much income is generated where, that'd be interesting.

Here you go:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/sec?s=MSFT+SEC+Filings http://finance.yahoo.com/q/sec?s=AAPL+SEC+Filings

Re: Apple is Officially Worth More than Microsoft

#129

Post by dejb »

jstevens85 wrote: post #123
dejb wrote: post #98

This surprises me given that it seems pretty clear they are about to lose their projected dominance in the smartphone game to Android. I can't see how you can justify that sort of valuation without projecting them to be the dominant smartphone platform. The iPad seems to be doing well but it all hinges on the same OS as the iPhone. Is it possible that Jobs "reality distortion" field is now working on the market?

Why is it clear that they'll lose the #2 spot to Android? It certainly may happen, but it doesn't appear to be anywhere near certain. Notice that at Google I/O, they said that Android was #2 in the US . Why didn't they say in the world , or in the US and Canada , or in the US and Europe , or even in the US and Australia ? Obviously it's because the US is the only major market where they've been able to beat Apple. If…

Android is growing much faster than the iPhone. The rest of the world (where I come from) is a lot more varied. RIM doesn't do so well and Nokia dominates heavily in a lot of markets. The iPhone doesn't do so well outside of the US either.

Re: Apple is Officially Worth More than Microsoft

#130

Post by david927 »

KERMIT wrote: post #97
Kilimanjaro wrote: post #90

Ballmer MUST go!

And be replaced by who?

Anyone with vision, courage and the ability to inspire.

Balmer could always execute, but that's not what Microsoft needs right now. It doesn't know where it's going, so it's meaningless how well it gets there.

Microsoft, for better or worse, is still in the driver seat. In terms of market share, Apple is a rounding error. But they inspire. They are exciting people about the future. When was the last time Microsoft did that? This isn't just about share price; it's about perceptions by investors, customers, employees -- everyone. They need to inspire again.

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