Apple now largest tech company - ahead of Microsoft
Wow - who woulda thunkit? Apple now worth more on Nasdaq than Microsoft. Simply amazing growth pattern. I guess that the behemoth Microsoft has been riding on the presumption that it was the biggest, by far, for too long now. Good on you Apple! I still have my 1985 Macintosh - notwithstanding the fact that it's now a fish tank.
Annual sales are only slightly behind MS now too. That's frankly amazing - so thats LOTS of iPhones, iPods, Macs and OSX. Oh yeah... and the music library. And now book library. And App store.... and iPad.
On Wednesday May 26, 2010, 5:02 pm EDT
By Bill Rigby
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Apple Inc shot past Microsoft Corp as the world's biggest tech company based on market value on Wednesday, the latest milestone in the resurgence of the maker of the iPhone, which nearly went out of business in the 1990s.
Apple's shares rose as much 2.8 percent on Nasdaq on Wednesday, as Microsoft shares floundered, briefly pushing its market value above $229 billion, ahead of its longtime rival.
Both stocks ended down after a late-day sell-off, but Apple emerged ahead with a market value of about $222 billion, compared with Microsoft's $219 billion, according to Reuters data.
Apple shares closed down 0.4 percent at $244.11 on Nasdaq, while Microsoft fell 4 percent to a seven-month low of $25.01.
Shares of Apple are worth more than 10 times what they were 10 years ago, as it has profited from revolutionizing consumer electronics with its stylish, easy to use products such as the iPod, iPhone and MacBook laptops.
The last time Apple had a higher market value than Microsoft was December 19, 1989, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream.
Microsoft, whose operating system runs on more than 90 percent of the world's personal computers, has not been able to match growth rates from its hey-day 1990s. Its stock is down 20 percent from 10 years ago.
Apple, which struggled for many years to get its products into the mainstream, resorted to a $150 million investment from the much larger Microsoft in 1997 in order to keep it afloat. At that time, Microsoft's market value was more than five times that of Apple.
Microsoft still leads Apple in sales. In the latest quarter, Microsoft reported $14.5 billion in revenue compared with Apple's $13.5 billion.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is now the second-largest company on the Standard & Poor's 500 index by market value, behind energy behemoth Exxon Mobil Corp.
(Additional reporting Rodrigo Campos and David Gaffen; Editing by Gary Hill and Richard Chang)
Regardless of what you might think about Apple products, they have been a world leader in new technology and setting the direction of future technology. Steve Jobs is a marketing genius.
Macintosh GUI, iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone and now iPad.
Its a con, and brilliant marketing. Yesterday, Quicktime was the 1st proud app I have that actually hard-reset my PC, no other MS app has done that, ever. And itunes is easily the most non-intuative app I have ever used. Having said that, my Iphone is great, I love it.
Apple lives on PR and spin, good luck to them and their shareholders, in the end thats what counts, share price and profit, top work.
what a crack up
I reckon though it was the same with IBM when Microsoft was climbing up the ladder, to think the little upstart firm taking on BigIron
Yep - I was working as an IBM mid-sized systems engineer in 1983 when a box labelled "IBM PC" arrived on my desk. It was the first IBM architecture personal computer to land in the country. A bunch of us looked at it and its silly little DOS disks incredulously and laughingly said, all at once, "It'll never catch on!"
Its a con, and brilliant marketing. Apple lives on PR and spin, good luck to them and their shareholders, in the end thats what counts, share price and profit, top work.
Heh? They don't sell thin air Fred! They design and manufacture machines and software that lots of people love to use. I think the same of my iPhone as I do of my quad-core 27" iMac, DualG5 tower and MacMini. They all work brilliantly together. I can't see "spin" as such... It's my Q9550 QuadCore PC that sits unused, definitely unloved, and powered off under my desk.
Apple gear and software isn't to everyone's taste - I know, but that's a free market for you! You may not like iTunes, but I love it. I find it ultra-intuitive. Go figure. LOL!
Yep - I was working as an IBM mid-sized systems engineer in 1983 when a box labelled "IBM PC" arrived on my desk. It was the first IBM architecture personal computer to land in the country. A bunch of us looked at it and its silly little DOS disks incredulously and laughingly said, all at once, "It'll never catch on!"
I was in hong kong then playing with PineApple computers
Who would design software (itunes), regardless of set up, that would by default, automatically, delete all music files (many paid for), immediately, without a prompt, on plugging an Ipod to a USB port ?. (it happened to me, twice).
I dont care about the technicals, at all, I know why it happened, its Apples attitude that irritates.
Apple critically relies on a level of nieveity, totally reliant on the way they do things that allows no deviation from the apple way, you are an apple fan-boy or we will trash you.
Anyway, proprietry apple hardware/software boxes work very well (eg iphone, or MAC I guess), for general everyday use, by the rules, for that they shine.
Try any astro software on a MAC .
Quote:
Originally Posted by Omaroo
Heh? They don't sell thin air Fred! They design really nice machines that people love to use. I think the same of my iPhone as I do of my quad-core 27" iMac, DualG5 tower and MacMini. They all work brilliantly together. I can't see "spin" as such...
You may not like iTunes, but I love it, and think the exact opposite. I find it ultra-intuitive. Go figure. LOL!
Wanna talk spin. I have got client after client asking how to connect an iphone to their server. When I get the details, that last nokia they had could do exactly the same thing but 'their mate told them' they needed an iPhone to do it. Now I need one to work out WTF they are talking about.
Apple critically relies on a level of nieveity, totally reliant on the way they do things that allows no deviation from the apple way, you are an apple fan-boy or we will trash you.
Well..that's a reasonably naive statement, sorry. Actually, they are ultra-flexible in architecture, and you can run anything you like - under whatever operating system you like. They're a UNIX-based box on high-end Intel hardware, so you can do almost anything with them. It's Windows that traps you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bassnut
Anyway, proprietry apple hardware/software boxes work very well (eg iphone, or MAC I guess), for general everyday use, by the rules, for that they shine.
"General, every day use?" Who told you that the only software they'd run was Apple-proprietary? LOL! Come on! It's nothing like the iPhone in that regard. They are being used by some of the most demanding users there are - in publishing, science, engineering and high-end graphics. You admit to liking your iPhone - try a Mac!!! It's only iPhone apps that need to be vetted by Apple, as they are all sold through the App Store and need to maintain a base reliability standard because they're a consumer-grade "phone", and are sold to intelligent and dumb people alike. I get their take on this and think that it's a good idea. My company develops (along with many other things for the publishing business) iPhone apps. Mac OSX applications come from all over the place like any other Windows software.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bassnut
Try any astro software on a MAC .
Like this? My 27" iMac QuadCore running OSX, Vista, MaximDL5, Registar and PHD Guiding all at once and without raising a sweat... and that's just within the running Windows environment.
At the same time, but on a different set of pages (which I've yet to see Windows do) I'm also running Adobe Photoshop CS4, Adobe InDesign CS4, Safari browser, Mail, Pages (a word processor), iDVD, iTunes, and a QuickTime movie on the Mac side - all at the same time and all at a pretty reasonable clip. Have a look at the process list. My QuadCore PC with same basic characteristics wouldn't have a hope. I'd say that's pretty flexible.....
It's my Q9550 QuadCore PC that sits unused, definitely unloved, and powered off under my desk. 
