Apple is Officially a Trillion Dollar Company as Shares Cross $207 Mark

[LordVic]

Profit > market share for a corporation.

this isn't so cut and dry. and there's a balance that needs to be found. A company can be insanely profitable, but if market penetration drops, its possible that with decreasing sales (as seen in their Mac Linup this quarter), you might also see the company offer less compelling options or shorter support. it's an argument often repeated on this forum alone, "Apple doesn't do X because there's not enough people buying X". if market share comes down to a point, there's a fear that they might just walk away fromt hose products.

you don't have to be #1. That mindset of "if you're not first, you're last" that many here have is ridiculous. There's nothing wrong with not being #1 in the market. as long as there's healthy market.

 

[dazz87]

Maybe now they will include a fast charger with their high end phone.

 

[Khedron]

In unrelated news, Apple has become the first company to successfully dodge half a trillion dollars in taxes

 

[mnsportsgeek]

I don't own any Apple stock, so I care more about Apple reducing the price of their products than becoming a "Trillion" dollar company.

If you have a 401k, you probably have apple stock.

 

[firewood]

If it's a good thing for consumers, will they:
...
- help underdeveloped countries join the mobile space?
- provide Apple hardware to schools that aren't wealthy?
- help the world become more connected?

I'm sure there's more to say here, but it's ironic that some people are cheering this milestone as if it is ONLY a good thing ... forgetting about how they got here in the first place and what type of business strategies they incorporate to cut cost and increase profit.

Let actions speak for themselves

That's not the job of a corporation. That's the job of individuals (which means YOU).

If you are an AAPL shareholder, you can put some of your dividends or capital gains into what you think are worthwhile causes.

If you have sufficient income or assets to be a regular Apple customer, you can put some of your own money (in addition to or instead of buying more tech goodies) into your favorite causes.

How much of your own money have you put into underdeveloped countries and schools, etc.?

Let your actions speak for yourself. Instead of complaining that some random corporation should do your work.

 

[^^BIGMac]

And yet, they nickel and dime us every step of the way...

They are in business to make money. And, they seem to know how to do it.

I have no problem with this since I have choices.

 

[DakotaGuy]

this isn't so cut and dry. and there's a balance that needs to be found. A company can be insanely profitable, but if market penetration drops, its possible that with decreasing sales (as seen in their Mac Linup this quarter), you might also see the company offer less compelling options or shorter support. it's an argument often repeated on this forum alone, "Apple doesn't do X because there's not enough people buying X". if market share comes down to a point, there's a fear that they might just walk away fromt hose products.

you don't have to be #1. That mindset of "if you're not first, you're last" that many here have is ridiculous. There's nothing wrong with not being #1 in the market. as long as there's healthy market.

I don't really see the Mac as the future of Apple anyhow so I think honestly they could care less about that product line if it slows in sales. So far it seems that they have done well adjusting pricing to demand. If your products are in demand then you can keep the price high.

 

[LV426]

Nice. Maybe they could stop with the skimping on the measly 5GB iCloud allowance per customer. I'm thinking they could dish out 5TB at a pinch.

 

[JimmyHook]

Tim Cook will be celebrated as one of the best CEOs in the history of capitalism!

 

[edolecki]

Purchased at $18. Never sold.

My grandmother purchased me a bunch of stocks when it released ($25 I think). Since then its split a few times making me a happy camper. I will probably never sell it.

 

[DakotaGuy]

Maybe now they will include a fast charger with their high end phone.

Why? It would make little difference on total sales, but cost them an extra few dollars on every sold phone. Decisions like this hurt profits. Apple is the best example of why Capitalism is a superior economic system. The wealth they have accrued is simply amazing.

 

[JimmyHook]

"Apple is doomed" is most often not about their bank account or their ability to create wealth. It's about their ability to keep being what Apple is - or at least what Apple used to be.

Just to drive the point home because there's too many "iPads really is a computer replacement" people on these forums who don't seem to understand the panic of Mac users, let's take an extreme example:

If tomorrow Apple decides to stop making Macs, iPhones, iPads and everything else and only makes "expensive designer flavoured water" from now on and still makes even more profit, what would you think? You'd be forced to switch to Windows or Linux, forced to switch to Android. Would you still care about Apple's bank account then?

Mac users are doing just fine. I buy MacBook Pros (13” and 15” models) for most of my staff, and iMacs for others. Best investments for computing. They hold value longer and lower total cost of ownership than any PC

 

[LordVic]

I don't really see the Mac as the future of Apple anyhow so I think honestly they could care less about that product line if it slows in sales. So far it seems that they have done well adjusting pricing to demand. If your products are in demand then you can keep the price high.

Problem is, at least in the Mac lineup, demand isn't keeping up. Q3 mac sales were the lowest since 2010. Either they're intentionally driving their mac user base away, or they've misjudged the price to demand calculations. While mac might not be the "Future", Apple isn't ready to cut the product lineup as today, you still require a MacOS device to program iOS apps. is Apple really ready to tell their app developers they're not important anymore? that seems risky. Last year was also the first year ever that Android App development outpaced iOS with more apps submitted by more developers to Android over iOS.

can't speak on this regarding iPhone as those seem consistent in sales (there was no growth this quater, but flat doesn't means decreasing sales either).

But all of these things on their own don't really paint a picture, but if you start looking holistically at Apple's decisions, there seems to be a clear choice of Profit margins being more important than the products themselves. This drive to be first trillion dollar company hopefully will have no long term impacts on the companies overall perception of quality. Something that is already impacting their mac lineup, which is still a requirement for the ecosystem.

 

[Duane Martin]

Yeap, by using cheap components. My iPhoneX battery is already running out after an hour.

Then take it in to be fixed. Obviously that is not the norm and there is a problem with your phone that should be covered by Apple Care (your phone came with 1 year coverage). If the battery truly does run out after an hour AND Apple refuses to fix it then you have something to complain about. For what it's worth my iPhone X seldom gets below 50% under moderate usage and I can't find any wide spread battery issue on the web so just get it fixed.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

I read somewhere that there was a Chinese government Oil Company that briefly crossed 1 trillion in 2007.

Source? Everything I’ve found on the subject says Apple is the first. I find it hard to believe a company did it 11 years ago

 

[JimmyHook]

Source? Everything I’ve found on the subject says Apple is the first

It technically did, Apple is the first US company. But, theirs wasn’t a true capitalist company, artificially inflated by currency manipulation

 

[Khedron]

How much of your own money have you put into underdeveloped countries and schools, etc.?

Let your actions speak for yourself. Instead of complaining that some random corporation should do your work.

A far greater percentage than Apple has. I pay taxes. Apple doesn't just so it can build a bigger offshore stockpile of cash.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Really chuffed for Apple and their shareholders but I’d like to see the people who buy their products put first now.

 

[DakotaGuy]

Tim Cook will be celebrated as one of the best CEOs in the history of capitalism!

This right here. 1 trillion dollars in value and growing faster every day. Now who said Capitalism is a flawed economic system? If you want a piece of it start buying stocks or investing. That's how you make your money in this system.

 

[I7guy]

Problem is, at least in the Mac lineup, demand isn't keeping up. Q3 mac sales were the lowest since 2010. Either they're intentionally driving their mac user base away, or they've misjudged the price to demand calculations. While mac might not be the "Future", Apple isn't ready to cut the product lineup as today, you still require a MacOS device to program iOS apps. is Apple really ready to tell their app developers they're not important anymore? that seems risky. Last year was also the first year ever that Android App development outpaced iOS with more apps submitted by more developers to Android over iOS.

can't speak on this regarding iPhone as those seem consistent in sales (there was no growth this quater, but flat doesn't means decreasing sales either).

But all of these things on their own don't really paint a picture, but if you start looking holistically at Apple's decisions, there seems to be a clear choice of Profit margins being more important than the products themselves. This drive to be first trillion dollar company hopefully will have no long term impacts on the companies overall perception of quality. Something that is already impacting their mac lineup, which is still a requirement for the ecosystem.

Apple didn’t drive to be an trillion dollar company. The free market put it there for various reasons, of which we can speculate until the cows come home.

It’s a feather in Tim cooks hat for sure.

 

[supremedesigner]

Wondered what Michael Dell has to say right now?

 

[dazz87]

Why? It would make little difference on total sales, but cost them an extra few dollars on every sold phone. Decisions like this hurt profits. Apple is the best example of why Capitalism is a superior economic system. The wealth they have accrued is simply amazing.

whatever you say Tim

 

[DakotaGuy]

Really chuffed for Apple and their shareholders but I’d like to see the people who buy their products put first now.

A corporation exists to increase shareholder value. The products are only a means to an end. As long as the products are good enough to drive record profits there is no good reason to over invest in them.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

It technically did, Apple is the first US company. But, theirs wasn’t a true capitalist company, artificially inflated by currency manipulation

So if that’s the case, what does China say the company is worth now if it was supposedly worth a trillion 11 years ago?

 

[LordVic]

Best investments for computing.

This is fundamentally wrong if you're looking for performance per dollar.

THis doesn't mean that if your workflow is MacOS based, they're not the best you can get, but currently, if your business is dependant on pure computational power, there's nothing in the Apple lineup I can recommend. If your business requires beating the competition's time to production and time to delivery, I cannot recommend Apple products currently.

an Example:
A large engineering firm that I have consulted with was losing out on bids against their competition. Their time to delivery was too long. Suddenly, despite them using the newest apple computers, their competitors were all using standard PC's. The workers were happy, but their production was 10-40% slower and longer than their competition. Apple could offer no upgrades to individual machines, nor could they offer machiens that were comparable in performance.

The machines looked great. Their users liked MacOS. But they were no longer winning contracts due to their longer turn around times than their competition.

Why were their competition producing faster? Because they were able to update more frequently, the computers and components than Apple has managed to deliver in the last 5 or so years. in Addition the Apple computers suffered from thermal throttling further reducing overall capabilities.

Would I recommend apple computers? Depends. the Macbook is a decent (if expensive) day to day consumer machine. The MacBook Pro's are great ultrabooks. But Apple has NOT kept up in the highest of high end. their product line has become more consumer focused, which is OK for consumers, But not those who need to eek out every single minute cycle of their computer.

A desktop computer should NEVER thermal throttle. Designing a computer that is so small / thin that tthermal throttling occurs in the desktop, is a design failure.

you and I might not notice this sort of behaviour in day to day usage, or even with Apple specific software. But Apple is NOT the best investment for computational power today.