“Amazon.com‘s market value jumped on Friday morning after its latest earnings report, putting the company closer to overtaking Apple as the largest U.S. firm,” Amrith Ramkumar reports for The Wall Street Journal. “Shares of the e-commerce giant surged as much as 7.9% in early trading Friday to their first all-time record in six weeks, giving Amazon a market value of about $785 billion.”
“Amazon’s stock is now up 35% in 2018, and a further surge could have Amazon passing Apple in market value,” Ramkumar reports. “A 4.6% drop in Apple shares this year recently put the technology behemoth’s market capitalization at about $820 billion, well below its record, according to the latest figures based on the share price and number of shares outstanding.”
“Amazon’s latest record comes after the company delivered a one-two punch, reporting its best revenue growth in more than six years while topping $1 billion in profit for the second straight quarter,” Ramkumar reports. “Amazon recently said it has more than 100 million Amazon Prime members.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hey, can we interest you in a beautiful, hardcover $299 coffee table book printed on specially milled German paper with gilded matte silver edges, using eight color separations and low-ghost inks which took Apple more than eight years to create?
Yeah, same here. So, we’ll take whatever wake up call actually works to wake Apple up.
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How much would Apple Inc. be worth today had a Jeff Bezos-type CEO taken over the reins instead? – MacDailyNews, November 21, 2017
SEE ALSO:
Watch Steve Jobs passionately defend his commitment to Apple in 1997 – April 27, 2018
Apple’s decision to discontinue AirPort products is the wrong decision at the wrong time – April 27, 2018
Apple pulls plug on AirPort Wi-Fi router business – April 26, 2018
Where is Apple’s AirPower? – April 25, 2018
Why can’t Apple keep their products up-to-date? – April 10, 2018
Why is it taking Apple so long to update the Mac Pro? – April 10, 2018
Apple’s latest announcements about the modular Mac Pro really ramp up expectations – April 6, 2018
Apple needs to stop promising new products and start delivering them – April 6, 2018
Apple: No new Mac Pro until 2019 – April 5, 2018
At Tim Cook’s Apple, Steve Jobs is long gone, and so is the ‘it just works’ ethos – December 19, 2017
Apple reiterates they’re working on an all-new modular, upgradeable Mac Pro and a high-end pro display – December 14, 2017
Why Apple’s promise of a new ‘modular’ Mac Pro matters so much – April 6, 2017
Apple’s cheese grater Mac Pro was flexible, expandable, and powerful – imagine that – April 6, 2017
More about Apple’s Mac Pro – April 6, 2017
Apple’s desperate Mac Pro damage control message hints at a confused, divided company – April 6, 2017
Who has taken over at Apple? – April 5, 2017
Apple’s embarrassing Mac Pro mea culpa – April 4, 2017
Who’s going to buy a Mac Pro now? – April 4, 2017
Mac Pro: Why did it take Apple so long to wake up? – April 4, 2017
Apple sorry for what happened with the Mac Pro over the last 3+ years – namely, nothing – April 4, 2017
Apple to unveil ‘iMac Pro’ later this year; rethought, modular Mac Pro and Apple pro displays in the pipeline – April 4, 2017
Apple’s apparent antipathy towards the Mac prompts calls for macOS licensing – March 27, 2017
Why Apple’s new Mac Pro might never arrive – March 10, 2017
Dare we hold out hope for the Mac Pro? – March 1, 2017
Apple CEO Cook pledges support to pro users, says ‘we don’t like politics’ at Apple’s annual shareholders meeting – February 28, 2017
Yes, I just bought a ‘new’ Mac Pro (released on December 19, 2013 and never updated) – January 4, 2017
Attention, Tim Cook! Apple isn’t firing on all cylinders and you need to fix it – January 4, 2017
No, Apple, do not simplify, get better – December 23, 2016
Rare video shows Steve Jobs warning Apple to focus less on profits and more on great products – December 23, 2016
Marco Arment: Apple’s Mac Pro is ‘very likely dead’ – December 20, 2016
How Tim Cook’s Apple alienated Mac loyalists – December 20, 2016
Apple’s not very good, really quite poor 2016 – December 19, 2016
Apple’s software has been anything but ‘magical’ lately – December 19, 2016
Lazy Apple. It’s not hard to imagine Steve Jobs asking, ‘What have you been doing for the last four years?’ – December 9, 2016
Rush Limbaugh: Is Apple losing their edge? – December 9, 2016
AirPods: MIA for the holidays; delayed product damages Apple’s credibility, stokes customer frustration – December 9, 2016
Apple may have finally gotten too big for its unusual corporate structure – November 28, 2016
Apple has no idea what they’re doing in the TV space, and it’s embarrassing – November 3, 2016
Apple’s disgracefully outdated, utterly mismanaged Mac lineup is killing sales – October 13, 2016
Apple takes its eye off the ball: Why users are complaining about Apple’s software – February 9, 2016
Open letter to Tim Cook: Apple needs to do better – January 5, 2015
Maybe Amazon will buy Apple and then start releasing new Macs on a reasonable schedule.
(I know, silly comment and useless sarcastic rant, but why should we cheer Apple when they repeatedly fail to deliver across the board of late)
My Mac Pro is a 2010 Quad Core, my Mac mini is the current version- last updated in 2014, my MacBook Pro is the version just before the Gizmo Bar and I see nothing in the Mac line that I want to buy. Nothing.
Mr Cook, I have been on Apple Computers from before the Mac and never switched away. I was one of those people who bought PowerMacs when everyone said Apple is going out of business- you are crazy to buy one. I was one of those people who brought people to the Apple Store to Demo the Mac for them and to help them select and set up their new first Mac. I was one of those people who bought Apple stock after seeing the Public Beta of Mac OSX- long before the bandwagon started. I have bought countless iPods, iPads, Mac minis, Apple TVs and MacBooks as presents for family and friends. I have helped countless people switch over from both Windows and Android to Apple products.
If someone running Windows asked me if they should switch to the Mac today, I would NOT recommend it for many people. I have no confidence that you will not continue to let the platform and hardware twist slowly in the wind.
The Mac customer is like a spouse or partner that has been long neglected and the eyes are beginning to wander. I already have an image of Windows 10 Pro up and running on Parallels on my Mac, so switching will not be that big of a deal.
Will my next desktops and laptop be Windows 10 Pro? The answer is in your hands. I am tired of sealed up boxes that cannot be upgraded or repaired that are sold new with outdated specs and components for top drawer prices.
Apple is a one trick pony and the pony is getting old.
Customers commonly call the Apple Store (yes Angela, it is a store) the “iPhone Store” which tells you what the public perception is regarding the company and it’s priorities.
Tim needs to pull a couple of rabbits out of his hat at WWDC or the rot will set in on Apple shares.
Here is how it is done, Tim.
Ok MDN, name a Bezos-type…whatever that is, CEO by name who you consider good enough to lead Apple. One with a proven record, who understands Apple, it’s dna and it’s myriad user’s wishes and requirements, who comes with enough authority and nous to keep tens of thousands of employees satisfied and motivated and the vision to push Apple into the future.
It will be a long wait.
#basement_ceo
#armchair_warriors
Name Thorsten Heins comes to my mind.
‘member him?
The best fit for the current Apple to pick up where Cook might leave off.
Michael Eisner finally “got it” from Walt Disney and now Robert Iger “gets it” even more and those guys only came from the general entertainment industry much like most Apple CEO candidates would from from the tech world.
Scott Forstall (tech’s Jimmy Fallon or Will Wheaton lookalike) might be a good candidate and others in the tech field who certainly understand what Apple is, where it came from and it’s goals are (most of us on this site even know this, most of it is not privileged information). Tim Cook’s real strengths lie in what he did for Steve Jobs, not as CEO.
It’s silly to fear to make changes though I think plenty of Apple execs might have something to fear on such a change being thrown out for not doing their jobs. (Heck for all we know it’s deliberate CEO sabotage for their own personal gain.) Fortunately they’ll have no doubt a nice golden parachute to retire on.
@ Gotcha: the current CEO of Apple had zero corporate leadership experience when he was handed the reins. He hasn’t learned enough leadership skills since then. No doubt he can hire finance wizards lawyers and overpriced fashion mavens. He tweets condolences to everyone and chooses his words carefully to not offend anyone. Yay for that. But he would fail miserably at running a small company. The only reason Apple hasn’t cratered is because Jobs gave it such a powerful trajectory. Cook has coasted ever since. He inspires zero passion. He has no instinct for customer delight or future technology. He takes absolutely no risks. He is glacially slow to move into a market. His communication to investors (besides his friends at Goldman) is atrocious. There is no nimbleness left, product errors go uncorrected for years. He uses the Apple logo to sell stale products at insanely overpriced markups. The speed to market is poor. The legacy product support is rapidly declining. The metrics that the overpaid executive uses to run Apple are turning it from an innovator into a bloated global tax evading corporation. The left hand does not know what the right is doing.
I can think of a dozen or more candidates who would turn around Cooks adrift boat, but there is no one candidate to do the job. Apple needs to be split into 3 companies
1) All Things iPhone, Watch, and iCloud subscription computing — retain Cook because that is where he wants to be
2) Mac and all peripherals for personal computing. Someone with product development skills from say Ideo or another innovative design firm need to step up there. Must also hire a software development team that cares about personal computers and customer focused software.
3) Entertainment. That would include iTunes ATV and the media distribution stuff, creation software like fcp, logic, and so forth. Put a turnaround artist in charge like John Legere. Must be somebody who is willing to outperform the competition at lower prices.
Remarkable how a company that delivered $1B in profit for a quarter generates all this excitement versus a company that routinely delivers orders of magnitude more in any given quarter. More profit in a quarter that Amazon has delivered over the last several years I would venture.
It’s not a fair or rational world. I think Amazon stockholders are buying into a potential unbridled future that may or may not arrive (Apple seems to be helping it along though by their own lack of solutions and execution). How sad people and investors no longer feel that way about Apple. I’m wishing I had sold my Apple stock 4-5 years ago and bought Amazon instead.
Amazon by showing only 1 billion in profit, with the many billions of revenue they generate aren’t profitable, let them move to number one spot, it will be fun watching Wall Street. justify the lack of profit.
There’s really nothing to justify. If big investors choose to put all their money into Amazon, they obviously see the worth of owning stock in such a company. They’re all betting that Amazon will be able to ruin every other retailer on the planet which will leave Amazon on top, by itself.
Apple is either incapable or uninterested in carrying out such an immense task. Apple could have easily done everything Amazon did. If Apple had decided to reinvest most of those profits over the years into building the company into an American version of Samsung, they probably could have dominated the tech world. As it is, Apple appears to me as a company not actually trying to build a monopoly. At least not to the point of deliberately ruining less wealthy companies.
You are right about the monopoly part, if Apple was ruthless (won’t happen with hired hand CEO’s like Cook), Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Netflix wouldn’t camping out on iOS, Companies run by owner CEO’s fight like junkyard dogs.
Considering Amazon ‘profit’ is what remains after all costs AND heavy reinvestment in itself is taken into account it’s rather impressive for them. Is it possible that Amazon is at a turning point now where they can’t reinvest in itself fast enough?
I had been a long time Amazon customer, but no longer. Goodbye membership- why? They sell over 5000+ NRA items and also a bunch of the #NeverAgain items. Guess you can have your cake and eat it too, but that doesn’t fly with me. I’d rather starve and will forever take my business elsewhere…
Apple’s P/E is definitely going in the wrong direction when all the FANG stocks and even Microsoft’s P/E are rising like there’s no tomorrow. I’m not sure why Apple isn’t able to increase their share value like other tech companies are doing, but it must be due to Apple’s unusual business model of profits before market share percentage. At least I’m getting fairly decent dividends so I suppose I shouldn’t complain. I’m fairly certain Amazon will reach the $1T market cap mark before Apple does but it will likely do so with a P/E of around 400. I don’t know why some people are boasting how cheap Apple is when that’s not how Wall Street sees it. Investors would certainly rather pay $1600 for one share of Amazon than pay $170 for one share of Apple. To those big investors, Amazon stock appears to be much, much cheaper than Apple stock.
Apple can only blame itself for not diversifying its product line and instead becoming the iPhone company. Apple has had many opportunities, considering the amount of cash it has on hand, to expand its business but chose not to. Still, Apple is doing OK, but just not nearly as well as the FANG stocks are, in terms of growth potential.