On October 6, 1997, in response to the question of what he’d do if he was in charge of Apple, Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell stood before a crowd of several thousand IT executives and answered flippantly, “What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.”
A little more than a month later, on November 10, 1997, new Apple Interim CEO (iCEO) Steve Jobs responded, speaking in front of an image of Michael Dell’s bulls-eye covered face, “We’re coming after you, you’re in our sights.”
On January 13, 2006, after a little more than eight years of hard work, Apple Inc. passed Dell, Inc. in market value, $72.13 billion vs. $71.97 billion at market close, respectively.
On July 27, 2007, Apple’s value doubled that of Dell’s, $127.81 billion vs. $63.65 billion, respectively.
On December 6, 2007, Apple’s market value passed 3 times that of Dell’s, $165.66 billion vs. $54.42 billion, respectively.
On May 01, 2008, Apple’s market value quadrupled that of Dell’s, $158.66 billion vs. $38.97 billion, respectively.
On February 12, 2009, Apple rose $2.60 to hit a market value of $88.37 billion or 5 times that of Dell’s $17.52 billion.
Today in NASDAQ trading, Apple rose $11.21 to $201.07 to hit a market value of $180.12 billion or more than 6 times that of Dell’s current $29.97 billion.
Apple is also a debt-free company and currently has significantly more cash on-hand, $34 billion, than Dell Inc. is worth.
Got any snappy retorts now, Mr. Dell?
AAPL and DELL quotes via NASDAQ are here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
I feel sorry for the employees of Dell who have to watch their company fail. But Mickey, karma’s a biatch!
I never tire of this…
Sex? My mother wouldn’t approve…
Love it! I remember that statement. Hurt my feelings because I was a die-hard Apple fan. I was worried for a short while that Apple was going to fold and I would be stuck using Windows again. *shudder*
Sorry Steve, Dell is only in your sights if you’re using a telescopic rearview mirror.
As fun as it is to poke fun at Mikey . . . the real target is coming up . . . MSFT, “We’re coming after you, you’re in our sights.”
I love this stuff. Glorious payback from all the abuse we took from PC/Dell/Gateway/Compaq-bigots who derided us for choosing a “piece of fruit” as our weapon of choice.
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@Mormegil
C’mon they called Macs TOYS, certainly not weapons.
High gloat-factor article!
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Dear Apple. With your stock over $200, now is the time to SIDAGTMBTTS. please?
Regards,
Mikey Dell
Silicon Graphics indeed.
I also never tire of this. No more snappy retorts from anyone, except one. And they are next.
@ Snow Leopard–
Then how did you get here?
@ Mr. Reeee–
That was a paradox I never understood. They called them toys, while a the same time crying that there were no games available for the platform!
As fun as it is to torture Mikey with his own words, it will be WAY more fun to throw them back at Ballmer. Nothing quite like the combination of arrogance and incompetence to make people want to see you fail.
P.S. Hope that M$ keeps him another 1-2 years, that’s all it will take…
Entering “dell vs apple market cap” into wolframalpha.com provides a nice chart of this saga. (Set for “Last 10 years”.)
Apple’s market capitalization took some scary hits in the past year or so; even with those dramatic dips, though, the trend vs Dell remains striking.
When Steve made that “threat” (“We’re coming after you!”), Dell was worth five times more than Apple (market cap).
Today, Apple’s worth is two thirds that of Microsoft. Apple’s stock has tripled over the past three years. If it manages to hit $300, Apple will officially be larger than Microsoft.
This is in no way unrealistic. And the moment it does happen will be far sweeter than the one from January 2007, when AAPL eclipsed DELL market cap.
As the owner of a company that builds batteries, some of which are for laptops. I had a dialog with Dell, inviting them to see our new technology at the consumer electronics show in January, which would enable their laptops to run for 100.3 hours on a single charge. Dell was ignorantly disrespectful to the new technology. I informed them that we would not be selling any of our batteries to Dell for the next 3 years and that they might as well close discontinue their laptop production.
Keep selling them Netbooks Mr. Dell. Yeah you’ll move gazillions of them, but your profit margin is like what 1 cent a piece? LOL
In the uk a few weeks back we had a great docusoap on Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry the major uk players in the early days of the desktop computer revolution, amongst other things. Not only was it funny and fascinating but it really did give us a great insight into how dangerous it is to spout off arrogantly when you are on top in such a changing market.
These two companies and figures were soon eaten alive by the likes of Amstrad in the uk who itself was within a few years eaten alive by Dell and others from around the World. Now it is Dells turn to eat dust and oh how Mikey must wish he had held his lose cannon of a tongue and been a little more humble.
As a footnote it is hardly likely that Dell himself will leave us as worthy a memorial as Chris Curry did in the form of ARM micro processors. Indeed he might struggle to be as impactful as that other joker Alan Sugar (Amstrad) has been in hosting the UK version of the Apprentice.
Ha ha…Jubei. Dell sucks! My brother is a huge fan of PC, specifically Dell. I told him that the only people who don’t like Apple, are people who can’t afford them. Thank you Billy for building the WalMart version of an operating system.
I like the word sex when we talk about Apple and Dell….
Steve: Mikey…is that your wallet on the ground?
Mike: Yes I believe it is……arrrrrggghhhhhh
Steve: Heh heh heh
dell’s a homo
can someone in the press go get a recent quote from this douch on his response to his huge ego and his ‘great vision’
I‘ve heard this reference to M Dell speech many time before – any one has a link to actual video? I think should join the ranks of infamous videos aka Ballmer laughing at iPhone.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Apple+Dell
Dell’s ability to predict the future is no different, and just as wrong, as many tech “gurus” over the years. In the early 1940’s, Thomas Watson, the head of IBM, said he could not imagine a need for more than 5 or 6 computers in the entire US.
When it comes to tech, you need to keep your mouth shut.
Congrats to the entire team at Apple for remarkable results for the quarter ! Apple is a remarkable company with remarkable people that have the spirit of innovation. I can’t wait to see the future products that come from this innovative company. Dell has nothing going on, nothing at all.
Mikey would say,
“Steve, buddy, use some of that chump change from the sofa in your office and buy my company, please. Have I got a deal for you.”
@seanenergy
Here is what I say to people who tell me Macs are too expensive. It’s good advice and really easy to do. If you can’t afford it now, start saving some money for it. Whew that was hard. LOL
I believe it’s even better than that. Note that the financial report now lists 914 million shares outstanding (employee awards?) so that would make the market value $183 billion and change.
I’m sure its one of those rounding errors ::)
the people who usually say that Macs are too expensive are the same ones who buy a new PC every other year because their “old” one craps out on them. I’ve had two Macs that have done the job for me in 11 years.
You do get what you pay for.
Kevin-
So very very true. In all seriousness, I don’t know what I was smoking that kept me from switching to Mac. I am no computer guru, but Macs make everything seamless.
PCs should be treated like Meth. All they do is piss you off. I am sure there are office administrators everywhere that are so annoyed with their PC, they go home at night and potentially reinact Miss Bobbitt.
Billy should be arrested for possession with intent to distribute a castration machine.
Interesting. I looked in my dictionary under “wanton hubris” and it said:
hubris, wanton |'(h)yoo̅bris, ‘wäntn|
noun phrase
• See Dell, Michael
• See also Ballmer, Steve
seanenergy, those batteries sound interesting. Are you going to be selling any to Apple?
That would be ideal Road Warrior. I guess we’ll see, on January 7 at CES.
I will tell you who I won’t sell to… mikey. I actually had a pretty nasty argument with those morons this morning. They (his employees) seem to get offended when you refer to Michael Dell as Mikey. [which is exactly what I did] They think he is Jesus, or something. Yeah,, he is the Jesus peddling a fourth-rate operating system on a substandard motherboard.
I remember January 13th 2006 and MDN’s article.
Geez, that Dell quote was almost 12 years ago now. Talk about about beating a dead horse! Go on with your life now. Don’t be stuck in 1997.
Oh, come now… nothing wrong with a little celebration. To say, ‘Go on with your life…’ is like telling everyone who celebrates Christmas, Easter, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Columbus Day and Veteran’s Day… “Move on! That stuff happened so long ago” I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t around for Jesus’s birth, execution, nor when he sailed to America, nor when he fought along side General Washington. But, I will still throw a few back and enjoy the celebration. Here you have something you know to be a reality. We know Michael Dell is real, we know what he said. We have seen the times change. Let’s all throw a few back and pee on a Dell… Michael, or one of his machines.
YES! Let’s turn this into a holiday like the likes of Christmas, Easter, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Columbus Day and Veteran’s Day! The day when Apple vanquished Dell! Oh wait, Dell still has higher market share than Mac (13.2 vs. 8.9%). Yes, Mr. Dell said something stupid 12 years ago, but Dell still beats Apple in units shipped. Let’s put off the celebrations until at least when that situation is reversed.
WOW!!! Thanks, Mikey Jr.
Like the 85 year old invalid in a rest home who never aspired for anything great in his life. Well, that man has delivered more crap to sewer, than I probably ever will. I guess his market share, with regard to crap, is higher than mine. Probably twice as much. But, I am still living better than he ever did, inspite of his grand market share of the sewer.