“Microsoft is now the world’s most valuable tech company with a commanding market capitalization of $250 billion. Its Windows software is in nine out of 10 personal computers,” Madway reports. “It would take impressive execution for any company to unseat Microsoft at the top of the technology heap.”
MacDailyNews Take: Impressive execution, you say?
• Apple mows down Street, backs up, runs over it again: $9.87B rev., $1.67B profit; sells 3.05M Macs – October 19, 2009
• Apple beats Street with best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings in Apple history – July 21, 2009
• Apple smashes Street; reports best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings in company history – April 22, 2009
• Apple demolishes Street with best quarterly revenue and earnings in company history in fiscal Q109 – January 21, 2009
• Apple bulldozes Street: $1.26 EPS; Mac sales reach all-time high of 2.5m, 6.9m iPhones, 11m iPods – October 21, 2008
• Apple smashes Street; reports record third quarter results, all-time high Mac sales – July 21, 2008
• Apple smashes Street, reports record second quarter results – April 23, 2008
• Apple beats Street; reports best quarterly revenue and earnings in company history – January 22, 2008
Versus:
• Microsoft axes another 800 employees on top of the 5,000 already terminated – November 04, 2009
• Apple’s Mac share grew after Microsoft’s Windows 7ista debut – November 02, 2009
• Microsoft revenue down 14%, profit plummets 18% – October 23, 2009
• Microsoft CEO Ballmer gets $25,000 raise as company profit plummets 17% – September 19, 2009
• Microsoft shares plunge after quarterly profit disappoints; net income drops 29% – July 23, 2009
• Microsoft axes 5,000 jobs in first-ever companywide firings as revenue, profits miss expectations – January 22, 2009
Madway continues, “But Apple, flush with cash and fat margins, has catalysts in the iPhone, the Mac PC and a highly anticipated but unconfirmed tablet device expected to launch next year, analysts and investors say.”
“Apple’s revenue is still far smaller than that of its arch nemesis, but it is growing at a more rapid rate. Apple’s annual revenue has more than doubled since 2005 to $36.5 billion, with earnings per share up more than four-fold to $6.29,” Madway reports. “Over the same period, Microsoft’s revenue has risen 47 percent to $58.4 billion, with EPS up 45 percent to $1.62.”
Madway reports, “Apple’s shareholders have been handsomely rewarded over the past decade, with its stock up close to 900 percent. Over the same period, Microsoft’s shares have fallen around 35 percent.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s (AAPL) current market value stands at $181.44 billion. Microsoft’s (MiSFiT) is $258.38 billion.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Joe Architect” for the heads up.]
There are a bunch of morons over at gizmodo who seem to think it’s not possible for this to happen. I know a few former CEO’s of Motorola and Palm who thought along those same lines. Stupid people generally remain stupid.
I still think it would be a really impressive execution if anyone can unseat IBM of the 1970’s from their place. I mean, they sell desktops, laptops, software, servers and service. What could possibly go wrong?
It’ll never happen!
Oh yeah, was anyone elses 10.6.2 update only 157+MB? I swore I read that it was over 400MB. Did I only receive a partial because I have a 13 MacBook Pro?
and Oh Oh yeah, first, even a snappy first bitches!!!!!
@jarrettdailynews
It was ~157MB on my CoreDuo iMac running 10.6.1
It was ~500MB on my Core Duo MacBook running 10.6
I thought that was strange too.
@ jarrettdailynews & Snow Leopard–
It’s possible that the combo updater also upgrades other software bundles along with it, such as Quicktime, iLife, etc…
Perhaps it’s a different size with different systems, because it depends on the software currently installed on the device.
My early 2007 Core 2 Macbook was only 146 MB to update.
my Slightly older Core 2 20″ imac (late 2006 early 2007 wants 500MB!! WTF?
Both were/are running 10.6.1 with much of the same software…
157mg on the iMac, 500+ on the two macbooks…
Note in the mirrors of all Microsoft vehicles:
“Apple-Shapped Objects Are Closer Than They Appear”
Apple has always been worth more than Microsoft. Worth is measured by many more qualities than money.
@ El Guapo,
“Worth is measured by many more qualities than money.”
How about, ‘Worth is measured by many more qualities than market capitalization’.
The question is not, can, but when.
Also, another metric to consider is Microsoft’s rate of decent in relation to Apple’s ascent.
The snowball (tipping point) metric will be devastating for Microsoft.
Absolutely. Apple is already worth way more than Microsoft.
It just isn’t apparent yet from the numbers.
Original MBP from week 13 – 157mb.
@jarrett daily news
why are you hijaking this thread?
Not only are you childishly giddy about being first, but now you attempting to change the subject? WTF?
There is a perfectly good thread on these boards to weigh in on the size of your download.
@G4Dualie
Yes, when that happens, I’ll be going to a bar to drink and get a front row seat to watch.
Some would argue tech stock issues in the NASDAQ don’t belong on the DOW, but I say, at some point Apple will displace Microsoft on the DOW as the better tech investment.
It will happen, because of Apple’s industrial diversity: retail, pro software, computers, telephony, content delivery, and last but not least, whole industries are making billions off Apple’s presence in the marketplace.
A couple of other items of note. Software developers are thriving and pushing the envelope and Apple is unleashing myriad technologies that is being embraced by a diverse cross-section of the tech sector, as well as the medical community, law enforcement, and academics, who are using Apple’s products to advance their own agendas and fields of science.
This is an exciting time to be one of the Apple faithful.
Go AAPL!
…a pleathora of qualities, perhaps?
I always download the combo and install that.
its not if Apple can surpass Microsoft.. its when will it surpass
Can Apple overtake MS?
Two words….damn right.
Don’t know how much my Quad core tower took because I set it going and went for a big Mac for lunch…..burp.
The difference is what happens when you innovate instead of copy. It is all about the product not the sales guy. The iphone continues to be unique, a true palm sized computer with a growing family of apps. the ipod was the first mp3 player with enough storage to hold a personal cd library and a user interface that allowed quick access of that library. The Macs are the best engineered and most widely available unix computers. The tablet when it arrives, will liberate users from keyboards and free their web browsers and programs. Smart people buy what they need,. smart people buy apple products.
If only enterprise users would wise up about Mac OS X server…
@Think
Can you say, Pirates of Silicon Valley — Part Deux?
You can rent the movie from the iTunes Store and mix up some margaritas to go along with your nachos, all from the comfort of your cocoon.
When Apple does pass MS in market cap will 1) Steve Ballmer still be CEO and 2) will he claim it is just a rounding error? I wish Ballmer good health because I want him to have that job for many years.
@joetak
The difference is what happens when you innovate instead of copy.
If you’re referring to the manner in which Microsoft and Apple have copied each other all these years and how these two companies are suddenly meeting in the middle because one is going down and the other up, you hit the nail on the head.
Apple is operating from a long historical context of modest success, overshadowed by millions of failures. It’s the failures that have allowed Apple to establish an incredibly robust foundation on which to build its empire.
Microsoft on the other hand, being the original copier, took only those parts of the puzzle they could understand and abandoned too much of what the couldn’t comprehend and ended with a GUI that was bolted on to DOS.
Apple (thanks in large part to Jeff) wrote the book on the user interface and failed 999 times. It was that thousandth try that yielded what was to become, relatively speaking, the same Finder we’re using thirty years later.
This difference has been in their approach.
Apple embraced their failures, Microsoft has refused to acknowledge them, (Apple’s or their own).
Of course they can, as long as Steve Ballmer remains CEO of Microsoft. The biggest risk to Apple right now is that Ballmer will eat one too many sausages.
@wannabe
A bigger risk to Apple is that shatter-proof windows are installed at Microsoft’s headquarters and one of the chairs Ballmer throws bounces off the window and kills him.