Apple Beats Microsoft in First Quarter Profit

[antbikerjl]

If you look closely though, Microsoft made LESS in revenue ($16billion to Apple's 20billion) but almost equally matches Apple in profit (5.3 billion to Apple's ~6billion). All things equal, Microsoft is still a better company in terms of profitability range due to their significant lower revenue but a close call on profit standards.

 

[JAT]

May 2010 join date complaining about bandwagon jumping. Go figure.

I say the same to just about everybody.

 

[KingCrimson]

If you look closely though, Microsoft made LESS in revenue ($16billion to Apple's 20billion) but almost equally matches Apple in profit (5.3 billion to Apple's ~6billion). All things equal, Microsoft is still a better company in terms of profitability range due to their significant lower revenue but a close call on profit standards.

That's quite a spin. Almost a pure software company SHOULD have higher profit margins to a 50/50 hardware/software company. The fact is AAPL stock is so high because investors like that AAPL has many profit engines and a good history of bringing new ones online every year. MSFT has not had a real hit in forever.

 

[Peikko]

MSFT has not had a real hit in forever.

Can't be bothered to check anything but the most recent past, so...

Kinect Confirmed As Fastest-Selling Consumer Electronics Device

Guinness World Records, the global authority on record breaking, today confirm that the Kinect for the Xbox 360 is the Fastest-Selling Consumer Electronics Device. The hardware, that allows controller-free gaming, sold through an average of 133,333 units per day, for a total of 8 million units in its first 60 days on sale from 4 November 2010 to 3 January 2011.

The sales figures outstrip both the iPhone and the iPad for the equivalent periods after launch. [...]

 

[KingCrimson]

^^^^
Yeah I forgot about the Kinect. Maybe MSFT is finally breaking out of that rut.

 

[vvswarup]

Microsoft doesn't really play in the consumer / gadget / toy market, which simply means that you don't get to see most of their products unless you work in a corporate data center. And unlike Apple, Microsoft -has- data center / server products that people WANT to use and that are years ahead of the pack (Sharepoint Portal Server, Exchange Server, SQL Server, Terminal Services, just to name a few) - and a LOT of their RD goes there.

This sounds like "sour grapes."

Also, nobody here should kid themselves - Microsoft still OWNS the desktop and office suite markets. Around a BILLION computers run their software, and even most Macs are dead in the water without Microsoft Office and/or Microsoft Windows (in Boot Camp, Parallels, Fusion, VirtualBox).

That's the whole point. Microsoft owns the desktop and office suite markets, yet, Microsoft is unwilling to move on to markets that have more potential to grow.

So Apple was more profitable in the last quarter. Big deal. Somebody with enough time on their hands might want to analyze the spending behavior and amount of staff and level of salaries to find out -WHY- that was the case. Maybe the guys at Microsoft have higher salaries and more vacation. Maybe Ballmer put more money into RD and marketing than in the last quarter. Maybe they bought more startups than before.

Nice try, but you're dead wrong here. Apple already beat Microsoft in revenue a couple of quarters ago. So don't even try to chalk it up to Apple being "cheap." Apple has already beaten Microsoft in Revenue.

Actually, who cares. Both companies are extremely profitable, but Microsoft has been profitable for a couple of decades more than Apple (who almost died in the 1990s while Microsoft was making more money than anybody else).

Now this is trying to make light of the matter. Apple beat out what was once the world's largest tech company. When Apple's market cap surpassed Microsoft's, people called Apple overvalued. They still call Apple overvalued. Now, Apple has beaten Microsoft in profits.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Wouldn't a more relevant comparison be Apple and HP since they are both hardware companies and MS really isn't in the same category hardware wise?