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Microsoft overtakes Apple as most valuable company

reuters.com

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Re: Microsoft overtakes Apple as most valuable company

#71

Post by FirmwareBurner »

CharlesW wrote: post #63
paxys wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much of that other half would still be around if the iPhone was no longer a thing? Apple Care? App store purchases? IAP/microtransactions? Apple Pay? iCloud storage? Chargers? Airpods? They can structure their financial reports however they like, but it doesn't change the fact that their entire ecosystem is directly or indirectly tied to that one device.

Fair enough, but Microsoft would be equally dead without Office and Azure revenue. One way to think about this is that Apple isn't diversified enough. Another way to think about it is that Microsoft's long tail is a mess.

>Microsoft would be equally dead without Office and Azure revenue.

Would they? Microsoft also own other stuff they monetize like GitHub, Linkedin, X-Box, and a shit tonne of gaming IP inclusing Activision Blizzard, plus other things I'm surely forgetting.

Looks pretty diverse to me comapred to a company who's revenue stream is limited by the ammounts of walled garden phones it can sell and who's grasp over its walled garden can be regualted away by the EU waving their wand the same way they lost the Lightnig cable revenue stream.

Can Apple keep up this momentum in the long run and keep growing by getting people to buy more expensive stuff, or will they slowly loose steam and stagnate?

Re: Microsoft overtakes Apple as most valuable company

#72

Post by mr_toad »

riley333 wrote: post #17

Apple just needs to do SOMETHING exciting with AI. Vision Pro looks great, but it's only a small piece of a much larger puzzle. I'm not sure if they're just too big to move at the speed they need to move or if it's something more damning about their internal culture but they need to do something in this space faster than I think most people realize.

They do lots of things with AI, it’s just that most of it is transparent to the user. Voice recognition, OCR, image classification, recommendation algorithms, FaceID etc. It’s all baked into the hardware or some other service.

Apple is also mostly a consumer oriented business. I can’t see them selling AI as a stand alone service.

Re: Microsoft overtakes Apple as most valuable company

#73

Post by al_borland »

riley333 wrote: post #60
al_borland wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is rarely first to release new tech. They watch and develop quietly in the lab, then release an implementation that everyone else seems to copy. So far their approach has been different, but their last keynote mentioned ML countless times. We can only assume they have more in the pipeline, and it will run locally on-device, which seems preferable to all the data collection being done with most companies working…

That's true, and Apple has the capital to do pretty much whatever they want. I just think as we've seen with Google/Gemini it doesn't seem that easy to beat what OpenAI has going even with a lot of money to throw behind it. And I don't think Tim Cook is that much of a visionary but that's just my personal opinion. I hope Apple does succeed though because I love their hardware and their silicon is great for AI applica…

They don’t need to beat OpenAI if they plan to play a different game.

The biggest question mark, like you mention, is how innovative can Apple be under Tim Cook? Are there systems and people in place to serve as those visionaries when the CEO is an operator at heart? I often wonder how much of what we’ve seen was in the pipeline when Jobs was still around, or is simply taken from what is popular in the moment vs having a vision for the future.

Re: Microsoft overtakes Apple as most valuable company

#74

Post by lozenge »

skc wrote: post #52
KoftaBob wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their revenue sources are more diverse than you think. Products that are either directlyfrom their portfolio, or from a company they have a large stake in - Windows - Office 365, which includes Teams, a product that has boomed in usage since 2020 - Xbox + Activision Blizzard - Azure Cloud, the 2nd largest cloud computing platform - Github, by far the largest version control platform for developers - Linkedin, quickly…

SQL Server is a massive business as well.

And Windows AD and Exchange. You'd struggle to find a large business which doesn't use it anywhere in the world.

Re: Microsoft overtakes Apple as most valuable company

#75

Post by jncfhnb »

DoughnutHole wrote: post #69
jncfhnb wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting to see you so confident that you’re well informed that you think you’re well positioned to make a moral judgement on such things.

What have you added with this comment? He’s offered a short opinion on the behaviours of two companies and made something of an ethical judgement. Why disparage someone for daring to have an opinion?

It is irritating when people who have no idea what they’re talking about make judgmental comments like “interesting what wall st rewards”. This guy has no clue what wall st rewards. He clearly does not understand the current situation. He clearly does not follow it in depth.

If you’re going to excuse this guy making an obnoxious unfounded moral high ground claim, grant me the same courtesy for telling others not to preach about things they don’t know.

If you ever find yourself writing something like “I don’t know much about X.” Then don’t conclude your statement with an assertion about X. Go learn about X or ask questions or shut up. Your opinion contributed negative value when it’s knowingly predicated on incomplete information.

Re: Microsoft overtakes Apple as most valuable company

#76

Post by dr_kiszonka »

jncfhnb wrote: post #75
DoughnutHole wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What have you added with this comment? He’s offered a short opinion on the behaviours of two companies and made something of an ethical judgement. Why disparage someone for daring to have an opinion?

It is irritating when people who have no idea what they’re talking about make judgmental comments like “interesting what wall st rewards”. This guy has no clue what wall st rewards. He clearly does not understand the current situation. He clearly does not follow it in depth. If you’re going to excuse this guy making an obnoxious unfounded moral high ground claim, grant me the same courtesy for telling others not to p…

> This guy has no clue what wall st rewards. He clearly does not understand the current situation. He clearly does not follow it in depth.

Would you mind sharing what the other comment is missing?

Re: Microsoft overtakes Apple as most valuable company

#77

Post by brirec »

twism wrote: post #35
paxys wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft is one of the most diversified companies in existence. Pretty much every business, every government and most consumers around the world are directly or indirectly paying them money for something , whether software, devices, consulting, cloud, data. On the other hand Apple's success for the last 15 years has relied on a single device. Now that the device is running into some issues (dropping sales in China,…

i was just thinking i haven't paid MS anything since i got my hands on "VXKC4-2B3YF-W9MFK-QB3DB-9Y7MB" ... then i just got an email receipt from my xbox gold subscription. curses!

I bet it’s not just Xbox, either. Maybe you’re not directly paying them money, but as someone commenting on Hacker News I’d sure bet you’re using at least one of GitHub, VS Code, NPM, or LinkedIn. And I’m sure they’re ultimately benefiting from that use!

Re: Microsoft overtakes Apple as most valuable company

#78

Post by desmond373 »

jncfhnb wrote: post #75
DoughnutHole wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What have you added with this comment? He’s offered a short opinion on the behaviours of two companies and made something of an ethical judgement. Why disparage someone for daring to have an opinion?

It is irritating when people who have no idea what they’re talking about make judgmental comments like “interesting what wall st rewards”. This guy has no clue what wall st rewards. He clearly does not understand the current situation. He clearly does not follow it in depth. If you’re going to excuse this guy making an obnoxious unfounded moral high ground claim, grant me the same courtesy for telling others not to p…

I disagree with the original commenter, I think the switch is because of the EUs crackdown on apples monopoly like practices(among other reasons). However your comment in response is not better than his original. Who are you to decide who can hold a moral judgement. You give no better argument to hear out your opinion over the originals.

Re: Microsoft overtakes Apple as most valuable company

#79

Post by joecool1029 »

shortcrct wrote: post #54
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But oddly enough one of those countries isn't China. Its weird how Google and Facebook can't do much their while everything from Apple works as well as anywhere else.

Because Apple is willing to play China's game. Google and Facebook's business models (ads) fundamentally don't work with China's government. They sell different products than Apple.

> Because Apple is willing to play China's game.

They are forced to by their hardware business model. Almost every entry point to the Apple ecosystem is through hardware and nobody can meet QC and scale of Chinese factories. Too much of a risk to block China and risk supply chain disruptions.

Re: Microsoft overtakes Apple as most valuable company

#80

Post by yunwal »

al_borland wrote: post #73
riley333 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true, and Apple has the capital to do pretty much whatever they want. I just think as we've seen with Google/Gemini it doesn't seem that easy to beat what OpenAI has going even with a lot of money to throw behind it. And I don't think Tim Cook is that much of a visionary but that's just my personal opinion. I hope Apple does succeed though because I love their hardware and their silicon is great for AI applica…

They don’t need to beat OpenAI if they plan to play a different game. The biggest question mark, like you mention, is how innovative can Apple be under Tim Cook? Are there systems and people in place to serve as those visionaries when the CEO is an operator at heart? I often wonder how much of what we’ve seen was in the pipeline when Jobs was still around, or is simply taken from what is popular in the moment vs havi…

Apple Pencil is an example of a nicely designed product that Steve Jobs almost certainly did not contribute to (he hated styluses).
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