Apple surges past Wal-Mart to become 3rd most valuable U.S. company

34 Comments

1. What’s going on MDN? No post on Apple’s shares once again hitting an all-time high close?

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2. @Ringgo
   Actually it was Flavor Aid! Get your facts straight!!!
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavor_Aid

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3. Don’t blame Walmart. It’s the consumer who decides which vendor makes lots of money and which one doesn’t. Higher perceived value can sometimes win out, but the American consumer is, for the most part, all about low price.

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4. @ Craig: anytime a retailer dictates price points to a manufacturer in a manner such one or all of the following occur, this is bad for everyone:

   1. the retailer destroys marketplace competition not only through predatory pricing, but also good old fashioned corruption
   2. mfrs are forced to slouch on quality to sell through said monopoly retail channel
   3. mfrs are forced to offshore production to sell through said monopoly retail channel
   4. mfrs are forced into bankruptcy if refusing to sell through said monopoly retail channel

   Peter Dawson proposed an excellent solution to the real problem of declining American standard of living (yes, in economic terms, America is indeed declining). He references also the excellent Frontline “Is Walmart Good for America?” program that explained how Rubbermaid was forced into bankruptcy and, as part of its liquidation, was absorbed by a competitor and its own machinery immediately purchased for a pittance to be relocated to China.

   http://www.petercdawson.us/Dawson_Peter_C._By_American_article_March_2006.pdf

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5. See related post: http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/24339/

   It adds an asterisk to the market capitalization figures in this story.

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6. @ Craig
   “but the American consumer is, for the most part, all about low price”

   All Wal*Mart does is fill a market position – to supply general living goods, cheaply, to folks who would probably shop somewhere else if they could afford to. Wal*Mart only exists because our society basically requires them to. That’s where a big chunk of the American economy lives.
   But there are many kinds of American consumers, and the kind that brought Hummer to prominence haven’t entirely vanished, and aren’t ones to shy away from laying down the dough to at least *look* like they know what they’re doing.
   There is clearly a lot more at work here than finding the lowest price.
   American consumers will pay for nice stuff. It works in every other business, for some reason. You might not think that a Porsche is worth $230,000, but few would argue that, money aside, a Porsche is pretty frikkin’ awesome. Nice things cost money.
   And lots of Americans are still buying nice cars. (until the next totally fake recall scare…)

   But for some reason, the computer economy is upside down. And I’ll tell you why, and take the auto analogy a bit further…

   Because millions of ‘power users’ out there decided that automobiles were no good unless there was a way to keep shoveling coal into them.

   But screw them.

   The thing is, places like Wal*Mart (and other bottom-priced outfits like Dell) tend to operate in cycles. They don’t last forever, because no matter how low you can get your prices, there will always be some bastard with slave-labor in East Timor that will come along and undercut you. You can’t win at that for long, so you have to invent.
   Some folks are better at inventing than others. The ones that aren’t good (ahem) die.

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7. Apple products are undeniably hip. So maybe it really is Cool-aid. ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />

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8. Apple is doing well these days for several reasons:

   1. They have managed to get their prices down to a reasonable level for the average consumer without sacrificing quality (much). The original iMac was the turning point and the clamshell iBook solidified that trend.

   2. Americans may like low prices but we also value quality. Apple has found the sweet spot in this equation. But even Walmart has to stock goods that won’t fall apart a month after the purchase.

   Some of you youngsters may not remember but America has, for over a 130 years, had discount retailers. Woolworth’s was the first “five and dime” (founded in 1878) and we have had them ever since. Walmart is an easy target for the self-appointed elitists of our society but the phenomena of the discount retailer is not new and it certainly is not destructive to our economy or society.

   And one more OT thing.

   The US has KNOWN and untapped oil reserves (in the tar sands of the Rockies, in the wastelands of Alaska, in the Bakken Play of the Dakotas, off shore of CA and in the Gulf, etc.) of over 2 TRILLION barrels of crude (that Pelosi, Reid, and Obama have placed off limits to the American consumer).

   Americans use 20 Million barrels of oil per day.This does not count natural gas reserves which are even larger and more is being discovered every day.

   Do the math. We’re not running out of “fossil” fuels”

   There is no reason to spend a DIME on wind or solar with reserves of this size. It is a waste of money and drags down our economy. Cap n Trade, “green” technologies, etc just cost the consumer money he should otherwise be spending on iPads and MacBooks.

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9. @ Beeblebrox: You bring up some good points. Apple does offer tremendously high lifetime value, and more people are recognizing this, finally.

   Have you seen a complete thermodynamic analysis of oil shale (“tar sands”)? In order to refine it to a fuel that can be burned in current automobiles (not only to to extract the oil from the rock but also to remove the impurities) remains economically untenable, much more energy intensive than refining the lowest grade of crude oil. Environmentally, it’s complete disaster. Nothing lives downstream of the tar sands. We can do better using natural gas, wind, and solar. Also, Americans can reduce their energy consumption at least 50% while simultaneously increasing GDP if we wished to do so. Better insulation and the retirement of fuel-oil furnaces and inefficient resistive heating alone would save Americans billions of dollars in energy costs, while putting many to work.

   Look at recent trends: Denmark has increased its GDP some 30+% while simultaneously decreasing its energy use by 50%. Germany has emerged as a solar energy leader, as well as other vibrant high-tech manufacturing, with much less unemployment crunch (about 2% less) that the USA is now feeling. It’s largely cultural, but America seems to have a large percent of the population that actually believes that they “save money” by not demanding better quality and innovation (like Apple). Let’s hope this changes.

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