Apple Overtakes Microsoft as 2nd Largest U.S. Company

[admin]

Something happened yesterday. Something big. And yet it remained largely unreported in the traditional news outlets, but tech sites everywhere perked up. The big news was that Apple had finally overtaken Microsoft in terms of market capitalization. Market capitalization is simply a public company's value measured as their share price x number of shares. It's a simple formula that more or less tells you the value of the company. For a company that almost closed its doors during the 90's this is an incredible testimony to the leadership of Steve Jobs and the new board at Apple.

Discuss "Apple Overtakes Microsoft as 2nd Largest U.S. Company" here. Read the article.

 

[its phillip]

Wish I had apple stock, although I'm not really a fan of their products :/

 

[hodedofome]

Yeah yeah, but also realize APPL has a higher price/earnings ratio than MSFT - 21 vs 13. The market cap could change back in MSFT's favor today, you never know. However, yes, it is a huge deal how much APPL has bounced back over the past decade.

 

[haraldo]

Why didn't I sell my house 15 years ago to invest in Apple....???
Would have given me a life on the beach now

 

[gbenfield]

and somewhere in South America, a smile is plastered on J-Bird's face!

 

[Gustavo]

Yeah, that's a big change.

From one monopoly to a worse one.

 

[haraldo]

Yeah, that's a big change.

From one monopoly to a worse one.

According to their licensing rules about software on phones....
Is their main office in North Korea

I think it's absolutely unacceptable that when you buy a phone you don't even get the rights to put your own software on the phone, for me, this alone is enough reason to stay away from their products.

 

[lsiberian]

The iPhone is an example of good engineering. I can't believe how awesome it is.

What software can't you load to the iPhone that would be compatible with it anyway?

 

[haraldo]

The iPhone is an example of good engineering. I can't believe how awesome it is.

What software can't you load to the iPhone that would be compatible with it anyway?

Can you make phone calls with it too?
For me the first version of the iPhone looked like a joke... a phone that didn't even support MMS, somehing that's been on all phones for years....

Now Nokia gone completely another way with a customized Linux distro on their N900, wonder what gives you most freedom of choice and what's most open?

 

[skizzerflake]

Apple has had an excellent strategy. They're only a small part of the desktop market but they control both the hardware and the OS software. Having their IPods being such a big thing and with the IPhone as the most talked about smartphone allowed them to grow. Unlike MS, which mainly does software, Apple micro-controls their gadgets from top to bottom. The best example of this is the IPhone (and IPod Touch), where you have at least 10 times as many apps as the runner up phones and where every single app that is sold comes from the App Store and gives Apple a piece of the action. The IPad is following the same pattern. I'm not an Apple zealot at all, but I have to admit that I'd be lost without my IPhone. I have forgiven Jobs for his paternalistic approach to selling and fortunately, I'm not interested in phone-porn or extreme phone violence, which are banned by Steve. Mainly what I like is that everything works, is simple, is incredibly convenient and is right in my pocket. It's refreshing to have a product that really works.

 

[JerryLove]

Apple has had an excellent strategy. They're only a small part of the desktop market but they control both the hardware and the OS software.

They call it a "vertical monopoly".

As an interesting aside: Microsoft owns a signifigant stake in Apple... and so has made a few billion off Apple's rise.

 

[skizzerflake]

They call it a "vertical monopoly".

As an interesting aside: Microsoft owns a signifigant stake in Apple... and so has made a few billion off Apple's rise.

I think it's vertical integration...they are a long way from a monopoly on anything.

 

[JerryLove]

I think it's vertical integration...they are a long way from a monopoly on anything.

Fair enough: though "product" is so... flexable in terms of "monopoly".

Certainly I cannot start a company that makes iPhones, nor a device that runs iPhone apps, nor can I sell iPhone apps without apple getting a cut. iTunes itself exerted signifigant control over the digital audio market until relatively recently.

Certainly, to me, the fact that in order to use one thing from Apple *say an iPhone", I will be limited to one carrier, and one plan, and one source of software, and expandability, etc has all the things I dislike about monopolies: but I think it's more philisopical than germaine to the discussion: so "integration" it is