At market close today, Microsoft (MSFT) had a market value of $201.59 billion. The market value of Intel (INTC) stands at $115.21 billion.
Microsoft’s Windows combined with Intel forms the portmanteau “Wintel,” which refers to personal computers that, when they’re working, can most charitably be described as upside-down and backwards Macs with weak immune systems.
So, add ’em both up and you find that “Wintel” is worth $316.8 billion. As you might imagine, we’ve been watching these values with anticipation for quite some time and today, for the first time (ever?), the closing value of Apple (AAPL) $317.60 billion exceeded that of Wintel. Just in time to make a nice slide for somebody’s WWDC keynote address (hint, hint).
Longtime Mac users, gaze at the headline, let it wash over you, and bathe in some of the purest Schadenfreude ever concocted.
This milestone reminds us of a quote uttered 13 lucky years ago:
What I can’t figure out is why he [Steve Jobs] is even trying [to be the CEO of Apple]? He knows he can’t win. – Bill Gates, June 1998
Smirk.
Somewhere in Washington & Texas, Gates & Dell need to change their underwear!
Not long before the Microsoft/Intel/Dell milestone.
Kind of brings a smile to my face. 🙂
That comparison makes no sense. it’s like comparing pizza and eggs. sure, they’re both food you want to put in your mouth, but eggs are for breakfast and desserts, and pizza is for lunch and dinner.
apple is more than just os x/ios and ipods, and microsoft is more than just windows and zunes. not to mention the inclusion of intel in that comparison. it’s like they never heard of mactel.
I like cold pizza for breakfast almost as much as I like to eat eggs and bacon for dinner.
I appreciate your sentiment but you need another analogy.
@G4Dualie, I understood him perfectly. It would be a great comparison IF both companies both sold just their operating systems. But Apple did not do well with selling macs. They went into music players, phones, tablets. Might as well compare Microsoft to Sears or Delta Airlines, or some technology company like Sony who makes TV’s. It’s pointless. Your G4 handle seems to say it all. You’re probably a big apple fan (even though maybe that’s not what the g4 was for, but the point still stands). And the G4 is out of touch…
Surely you need to combine HP, DELL, IBM, Microsoft, Intel, HTC and a host of other manufacturers before you can say Apple is more valuable? The value of the Mac line is a tiny fraction of the business considering the iOS line and other industries..
And to think… it all started with the iPod.
“… it all started with the iPod.”
Wrong. It all started with the Apple I.
The Apple I was based on the MOStek 6502 chip, whereas most other “kit” computers were built from the Intel 8080
I think the resurgence of Apple really began with the candy-colored iMacs. That’s when it started to feel exciting & people were looking at Apple again. The iPod just ratcheted it up a whole bunch of notches.
You’re right; however, I feel, in this instance, the resurgence truly started with the Think different! campaign.
That campaign was preceded by, the return of SJ, replacing the board members en masse, the pre-recorded message from Bill Gates on the big overhead promising Office support, legitimising Mac’s future as an development worthy platform, and the brilliant outline for the future turn around offered by a solemn and wizened Steve Jobs. Think different, juxtaposed against IBM’s Think! was the message for Apple’s core assets, the loyal customers that stuck around during the dark days, as well for the internal team Apple for the future. It truly marked/reaffirmed its corporate/cultural identity as well the shape of things to come.
I was there. And I’m glad to be here today again. Job well done, Steve, and the Apple team. A small toast.
You’re talking about resurgence, I was talking about where it all began.
Did you think Dan Warne was talking about resurgence? For a lot of people around here they never heard of Apple until iPod.
Oh, I’m fully aware of the full history of Apple, but if you look at the market cap price graph, “it all started” around the time the iPod was introduced.
Actually, I believe the resurgence began when Apple opened up its gadgets to the Windows platform.
eh, I’m pretty sure Apple is insignificant, a rounding error, and that wintel will take it all away from Apple once they get around to it, right? RIGHT?!
the way I understand it is that Steve Job’s amazing leadership skills is what put apple to where it stands now. Remember when jobs got fired at apple’s early days? Apple kinda failed and when he came back, apple came back out of the shadows wanting to take it’s place back. So apple can enjoy its success for now. But what happens when jobs retires or his cancer gets the best of him? if that happens then I guess its back in the shadows for apple unless someone with the same eldership skills takes jobs place.
I disagree. It’s not Steve Jobs’ leadership skills that propelled Apple forward, it was his mind and imagination. That’s the impression one gets after reading all the literature available about the man.
One of his leadership traits is decisiveness, and once he makes up his mind he rarely, if ever, changes his mind, even to the detriment of the task, project, the group, and the organization, even if he’s wrong.
Inside the man is a special quality, I presume to be an ideology of serenity wherein the balance lays Everyman and machines. His mind is the proving ground for a select type of technology of which, he’s not afraid.
He is the catalyst for this latest burst of micro-machines and if he has the time, I’d like to see one more Apple-branded gadget make its debut; the iWatch. That’s right, I’d like to see both wrist and pocket watches that are just as capable as the iPhone.
I’d love to see the look on Bill Gates’s face when Apple introduces iWatch.
Correction:
Inside the man is a special quality, I presume to be an ideology of serenity wherein the balance lays between Everyman and machines.
Rark & G4Dualie, I respect both points, but must disagree with some of this. While leadership is important, that’s not what turned apple around. And saying it’s his “mind and imagination” are vague, unquantifiable points. Decisiveness, serenity are useful, but all these are simply small gears in a much bigger equation.
Instead when Jobs returned, his new awareness that simply selling things wasn’t working out. Probably due to the overly high costs apple was asking. Instead he became aware that you needed to market with amazing amounts of persuasiveness and tap into peoples most powerful influences. Their emotions. Being newly trained, and by using sophisticated new marketing skills taught to him by people he had hired, he started the “Think Different” campaign to do just that. This campaign was designed to target the dreamers and make friends with them.
The speeches were designed to get people all excited about “the future”, “technology”, “innovation”, by using cleverly crafted speeches. He’d often mention some of the great minds, including Einstein. Then at the end, he’d flash up the “Think Different”, and finally show the Apple logo. This would get people on an emotional level to do several things all in one fell swoop. Admire him, like him, love him, and most of all connect those feelings to the apple trade mark, causing people to identify him as the “center of innovation”. It was all a marketing speech. More proof, this is true, that it wasn’t even his words, but it was written by someone else. The people he hired. The end result is people would automatically think of him as as the “father” of the computer and so on. You may not like this answer, but this is the 100% real truth. He was an amazing marketer and that is what turned apple around. NOT because he invented this and that and so on. In fact he invented very little. Most of that stuff was created by 1000’s of engineers. Some think, Oh, but it’s “his vision”. OK, I’m sure he did add some things, BUT again, that wasn’t the big point. The big point was he convinced everyone to trust him as “Mr. technology”. And if I were wrong? If I were wrong, all these speeches we know of, wouldn’t exist. No, he (or others) wrote those for a reason. They were all planned to help create a difference in public perception even if the products didn’t change that much, or usually only incrementally. And after he did this? Sales figures started to improve. So yes, I see him as a bit of a con man. This will truly anger devote worshipers, but I think you should never worship anything that can’t love you back. And we should all open our eyes to the reality of billion dollar companies trying to get at our wallets.
As for your wish to see the look on Bill Gate’s face, that is likely born out of apple’s ads aggressively mocking all things microsoft. Hey, when you can’t beat someone, make fun of them! It worked, so I guess that’s a plan. But Bill was always very nice to Steve even though he stabbed him in the back on many occasions. Also microsoft saved apple from near extinction by preventing the company from going bankrupt. Yet, you want to see that look on his face. whatever….
Fsck off.
Duh, Winning!
This is why I’ll never understand market value….Intel profits from both Apple and MS so shouldn’t they be on top?
There’s a difference between being ‘smug’ and right versus being ‘smug’ and wrong:
“This milestone reminds us of a quote uttered 13 lucky years ago: ‘What I can’t figure out is why he [Steve Jobs] is even trying [to be the CEO of Apple]? He knows he can’t win.’ – Bill Gates, June 1998”
*BING*
FAIL FAIL FAIL
Booya!
That is all.
So what? Microsoft and Apple don’t even sell the same things anymore. As for the operating system for desktops, apple failed miserably with it’s slow, inferior and outdated mac offerings. So yes, I see they are worth more. But the real reason for this is because by using really great advertising, they won the youth, and kiddies over to wanting their music players. Even though music players aren’t that amazing and have been around forever. We are talking huge sales. Then that was used for a phone called the iphone. It’s best feature, was it was touch screen, and they had teens and those 20-30 thinking steve jobs invented it. This again was what I meant about their great marketing. Marketing to make fun of competitors and get people to be so happy about “the future” and “technology”. Their music player and phone are nice, BUT please understand what I’m saying. They were not THAT much beyond anything else out there. Again, I’m saying it’s marketing that is targeted towards a younger audience to get them to fall in love with apple. And get them rooting for them. And get them to feel like they want to support an “under dog” etc.
All that in combination with targeting teens, fashions, colors, all things shiny etc made for massive sales. And when that worked, it got people saying, “Yay, look, whoopie, look! they are beating micorosoft!!” And the more they did start to beat them in cash earnings, the MORE it made head lines. And the more that happened, the more people WANTED it to happen. Not for any logical reason, mind you, but that under doggie must be supported.
In fact just the sales boost in ipods, caused a sales boost in imacs. I can understand the nice, cute ipods. But suddenly they started to love the mac more? That makes no sense. You’d think they’d buy the mac based on what it would do for them and what it was worth. But apparently BEFORE the ipod, no one recognized the mac much. So this proves my point. Sales increases in macs AFTER music players were sold. That said, I will point out that mac sales never did rival those of computers with windows on them. Not even close. But they doubled in amounts from like 4% to 8% share or something like that.
If you look around, 90% of the time you hear someone raving about apple, they are TEEN AGERS! or they are between 20 and about 29. NOTE, that the ipod was put out about 2001 or so? And that this people that are 28 were 18 or 19 then. YES, they, as teens were targeted. WHY? Because younger people can be fooled very easily. In fact you can get them to fight battles for causes for you, if you are slick enough to get them into it.
Do old people buy apple? Yes, of course. But I’m talking about how apple got it’s big boost here and where most of it came from. Younger people rarely if ever would understand why for example getting a mac isn’t the best choice. IT does have an advantage or two, but beyond a couple small points, it has everything against it. Too expensive, slower, more costly, runs less software. Yet apple fans are programmed with answer (that are not very good), to answer against all that. Who programmed them? Apple sales methodology of course. But you guys, GO! yeah! you won! Finally beat the big, mean microsoft down!! Good job !! whoopie!
And after all that, I typed. NOT ONE, single apple fan would ever agree with a thing I said, even if it was mostly or all true. Not one. And THAT is why they are so annoying and naive. But they too will get older someday, and meet up with a new crop of kids that will also have smart mouths and think they “won”. That day will be bliss 🙂 (computer expert, programmer of many platforms including apple, windows, game consoles and more. Have owned every type of computer)
and in my point, I talked about one of the big selling points of the iphone was touch screen. I just KNOW some apple fan would challenge me and say, but now there is this, and there is siri and there is that etc. NO, that’s not what I mean. In the days of iphone 1, the first one, it was very basic, and THAT thing was what won new fans over. You can’t count iphone4! You count what won them over initially, and it wasn’t that big of a deal. In fact it didn’t have a working app store at that time. The big deal WAS as I said, that it was slick looking and touch.. To apple fans. Please see I made many good points. I know I couldn’t be a retard or dummy. I watched the apple market change since I was a kid, 32 years ago. I know my stuff. That said, apple HAS used very pointed marketing to make what is basically a giant cult following with reactions that over exaggerate pretty much everything. Also note, I never said apple sucked. I’m saying all the people drooling over it like a tiger with a steak are over rating it, GREATLY. And giving them too much credit. It’s so obvious.