Apple Tops Microsoft in Third Quarter Revenue

[MacRumors]

Back in late May, Apple passed Microsoft to become the second-largest U.S. company as measured by market capitalization. Just a few months later, Apple has reached another milestone lined to its longtime rival: For the first time in nearly 15 years, Apple has brought in more quarterly revenue than Microsoft, as Apple's $20.34 billion quarter announced last week topped that of Microsoft, which today reported revenue of $16.20 billion for the third calendar quarter of 2010.

While revenue is only one measure of the size of a company and Microsoft's high profit margins achievable through its primary focus on software mean that it still generates more profit than Apple, today's news offers yet another sign of Apple's resurgence over the past decade.

Article Link: Apple Tops Microsoft in Third Quarter Revenue

 

[rdowns]

I'd love to see Ballmer's reaction at each of these Apple milestones.

 

[HLdan]

If only Emballmer could make a product sexy enough for someone to buy rather than being forced to use it. He can't live off the Xbox forever.

 

[Salacion]

I guess we really are seeing the day Apple trumps Microsoft. I'm not sure how to react. Good for Apple, but what about us?

 

[Farplaner]

Nice chart... (500 Internal Server Error)

 

[anubis]

Apple's yearly revenue is higher than 2/3rds of the world's countrys' GDP

 

[PsudoPowerPoint]

I'm happy to see this for Apple, but I'd really like to see MS wake up and start producing better products.

 

[layte]

Microsoft still made a much larger profit. For now anyway.

 

[inkswamp]

I'd love to see Ballmer's reaction at each of these Apple milestones.

What have you got against office chairs?

 

[nagromme]

I guess we really are seeing the day Apple trumps Microsoft. I'm not sure how to react. Good for Apple, but what about us?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been getting better products from Apple now than ever before. The risk of Apple getting too successful is that they stop innovating and just keep selling the same old versions of things. That’s certainly not happening.

 

[alphaod]

Great… now there will be rumors of Apple buying Microsoft.

 

[Compile 'em all]

Go team apple!

 

[elppa]

I'd say Apple is primarily focussed on software and platforms as well. It's just that they don't charge a Windows tax.

 

[robanga]

Wow. That is pretty amazing. The power of a good consumer brand trumps even enterprise IT.

 

[andiwm2003]

microsoft? google is the enemy!

Seriously, Apple is on a good way and the old rivalry between Apple and Microsoft is now less important than the dominance on the mobile internet and media consumption market. I wouldn't be surprised to see an alliance between apple and microsoft soon.

also apple has not much left to grow into besides movies. the dominate the rest already or can't enter (like search engines). so the rumors about apple buying sony seem somehow plausible.

 

[NebulaClash]

Isn't it amazing to see how much of a profit Microsoft makes on their revenue, yet it is Apple who gets called "overpriced" for their products (mostly hardware involving real material and production costs)? Talk about overpriced, Microsoft sells bits and licenses and rakes in the dough.

Just not as much dough as Apple now.

 

[andiwm2003]

................................ The risk of Apple getting too successful is that they stop innovating and just keep selling the same old versions of things. That’s certainly not happening.

Aehm...iLife? iWork?

 

[riverfreak]

Why does the chart only go through Q2 2010 for a story about Apple exceeding Microsoft's revenue in the 3rd quarter?

 

[*LTD*]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8B117)

Not one chair left in Redmond.

 

[dgree03]

Isn't it amazing to see how much of a profit Microsoft makes on their revenue, yet it is Apple who gets called "overpriced" for their products (mostly hardware involving real material and production costs)? Talk about overpriced, Microsoft sells bits and licenses and rakes in the dough.

Just not as much dough as Apple now.

But the only reason people can say Apple HARDWARE is overpriced is because there is other competition out there that sells computer hardware also. Microsoft doesnt really have alot of competition in the markets they touch especially Windows and Office.

Also I would imagine software making more profit because once its built and developed that same software can make the same money over a longer period than hardware can make.

 

[NebulaClash]

But the only reason people can say Apple HARDWARE is overpriced is because there is other competition out there that sells computer hardware also. Microsoft doesnt really have alot of competition in the markets they touch especially Windows and Office.

Also I would imagine software making more profit because once its built and developed that same software can make the same money over a longer period than hardware can make.

Yes, that's true, but my point is that both make good profit on their revenue, yet only one gets called "overpriced" even though open source software alternatives can be had for free compared to Microsoft software.

 

[50548]

I'd love to see Ballmer's reaction at each of these Apple milestones.

MS IS...DEAD. AND SO IS ANDROID.

 

[RalfTheDog]

Microsoft is kicking Apples ass. Microsoft sells more products on DVD than Apple and Microsoft has more letters in it's name.

 

[theOtherGeoff]

and there is a fundemental difference

most of MS's revenue stream is paid by corporations or OEMs ($100,000+ a PO)
most of Apples revenue stream is paid by individuals ($.99-$999 at a time;-).

but in all these comparisons, the real issue for MS isn't Apple, it's Google. Google and MS are both SW services companies. As apps move to the cloud, Google is the hungrier, more agile adversary. The battle of Google Apps vs MS Office is one battlefront that is truly striking at the core of MS. Apple's iOs is just a force multiplier for that war (I want to run my apps on 'any device'), as MS has shown it can't deliver quality apps on a non MS-Windows platform (some will say it can't do it there either;-). at 1/10th the price per seat TCO (desktop and backoffice and Internet-enabling), if Google is 1/2 as good as MS... people will move in droves... and MS will suffer because the 'last half' is the expensive half.

Apple... it's really in a niche of it's own... It's competing more with Sony (user experience of media), and BestBuy,Walmart,Amazon (consumer media storefront).

 

[*LTD*]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8B117)

Quite telling. Apple's a fraction of MS' size, employs a smaller workforce, and has a smaller R&D budget. And look at what's happening. Pretty embarassing for Ballmer. But no surprise at all.

Wasn't Windows 7 supposed to kill the Mac? What happened there? Apple ended up selling *more* Macs, so much that they're now the third largest PC manufacturer.

The real conundrum is why Ballmer hast had his fat, non-performing ass fired yet.