Apple becomes the first $1T company • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#261

Post by httpz » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 5:55 PM UTC

KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #145

Is Samsung Electronics ridiculously undervalued or what? It generates more profit than Apple https://wccftech.com/samsung-posted-higher-profit-than-apple... yet is valued at only $290 billion instead of $1000 billion. What the heck.

It's listed in the South Korean market so it's harder for small investors to access. Also, South Korean stock market is undervalued in general because of the North Korea risk.

Also, Samsung is under tight family control through complicated loopholes and cyclic ownership structure so it'll be hard to gain any significant control of the company away from the family, which makes it less appealing to investors I guess?

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#262

Post by nv-vn » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 5:56 PM UTC

rainbowmverse wrote: post #249

Apple is worth $1 trillion in the same way an asteroid hurtling toward Earth contains $1 trillion in precious metals. Tim Cook has yet to prove he can do more than maximize profits while someone somewhere is working on the thing that'll undermine the source of Apple's value while they're not looking. edit: generalized away from a specific example because it distracted from the point.

This is true for any company though. The value of a company has little to do with their current assets or current cash flow. At the end of the day, owning stocks is still betting on a company's future.

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#263

Post by TuringNYC » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 5:57 PM UTC

newswriter99 wrote: post #40

metalliqaz wrote: post #2

If time travel existed, I'd go back and buy me some 1980's Apple stock. I think we just proved time travel can't happen.

Just go back to 2009 and buy bitcoin, then sell it on 15 Dec 2017 at $17,500.

Pretty awesome how we can all be millionaires as long as we can complete historical information and can choose our buy and sell dates :-)

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#264

Post by kodablah » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 5:58 PM UTC

bepotts wrote: post #248

kodablah wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I love their approach as a consumer. Quite often anti-competitive actions are beneficial to customers at the expense of other companies.

I'm starting to see a lot of people charging Facebook/Apple/Google/Amazon with anti-competitive behavior, and yet most of the charges (including a lot of the ones the EU charges Google and Apple for) are just normal business behavior. Nobody cares about whether your smaller firm can compete against larger companies or not. As a consumer, I don't give a damn if Apple is "mean" to your business. Learn to compete better…

While I might agree in general (or at the least for consistent application), my point was that often things that help you hurt others. What the law considers anti-competitive and what I consider anti-competitive are different, and I wasn't addressing the law at all. People should just be aware that their consumer choices may harm others that they cannot easily see, that's all.

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#265

Post by lagadu » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 5:58 PM UTC

paulpauper wrote: post #43

Everyone talks about Apple as the best possible investment, but an investment in XEM or XRP (Nem or Ripple or Stellar Lumens) in early 2017 surpassed all of Apple in its 30 year history. My money is on Google, Facebook or Amazon eventually surpassing Apple though

I too, sometimes go to the casino for a little "investing".

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#266

Post by scarface74 » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 6:00 PM UTC

com2kid wrote: post #227

scarface74 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should have learned that lesson from the iPod - “No wireless, less space than a Nomad, Lame”

Don't forget iTunes. Part of why iPod succeeded because it allowed stress free easy access to a giant % of the world's music, all at one constant price. The iPod wasn't revolutionary in any respect, it was a perfectly executed version of what other people were already doing, that had a huge, incredibly well done, marketing push behind it, with even the smallest detail given attention. Also the white ear buds were gen…

That’s true. It took two years for Apple to sell thier first million. It wasn’t until both the music store came online and iTunes was released for Windows that it took off.

But even by 2007, a small percentage of the music people had on iPods were bought through iTunes (less than 10%?) according to Jobs “Thoughts on Music” essay.

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#267

Post by coryfklein » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 6:00 PM UTC

_pferreir_ wrote: post #246

Is this supposed to be good news? I see lots of excitement in this thread, but isn't having a single company worth so much money a sign that we are, as a society, failing to create an economy that is truly competitive and fair? We've already got banks that are too big to fail, soon we might have private companies that are humongous to the point of having the same status.

Turning that argument around, in a fair and competitive market would it be impossible for a company to grow to a $1T valuation?

Do you think the majority of Apple's $1T valuation is attributable to abuse of government regulation or patents?

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#268

Post by Anechoic » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 6:01 PM UTC

GlenTheMachine wrote: post #35

I went to grad school with a guy who, the day Apple stock hit $14 a share, decided to spend $500 of his grad student stipend to buy some. He figured Apple's cash on hand was worth more than $14 a share. I thought he was nuts. I was an idiot.

Repeating (for the second time) a comment I made here in 2010: "Back in Macworld Boston 1996, I bought one share of Apple stock at $16 and got a framed commemorative stock certificate. It went into a box when I moved later that year and I completely forgot about until I found it a couple of weeks ago. It's worth almost $1,000 now!"

In the meanwhile, I sold off some of it, but a good chunk of it went into the downpayment for my house last year.

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#269

Post by mcphage » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 6:02 PM UTC

kashyapc wrote: post #118

rayiner wrote: post #54

Good for it. Becoming a trillion dollar company selling quality products people love. Not data mining everything about your life and using it for advertising (Google), ruthlessly destroying competition (Microsoft), or destroying the environment (Exxon). How old fashioned.

[Maybe I'm being excessively cynical] Sorry to rain on your paradise, but is there something old-fashioned about using "Double Irish"[1] arrangement to evade legitimate taxes too? [1] https://www.irishtimes.com/business/apple-s-cash-mountain-ho...

Tax evasion is very old-fashioned.

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#270

Post by bufferoverflow » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 6:03 PM UTC

themihai wrote: post #204

mkaziz wrote: post #113

I wish I'd bought Apple stock in December instead of Bitcoin.

Speculative investments are like gambling. Don't be sorry for Apple. Try FB...they may hit the trillion dollar cap as well..who knows...it's all just speculation.

FB has a problem with young people leaving. I wouldn't invest in FB.