Google Again Surpasses Apple as Most Valuable Company in the World

[apolloa]

My two cents is that you are missing a key point - Apple needs to expand, in a meaningful way, beyond the iPhone. You know the list - streaming video / Cloud / content / .....

Remember when Apple was going to OWN the living room? What happened?

It is very slowly getting there with it's online services, if that was the case they need to do something big as if they are making a car it won't be ready for a good few years yet.
As for the living room, I believe the content providers and owners had other ideas about that, plus it is battling against games consoles and Android TV boxes.

Apple messed up big time I think with the living room idea, they left it fffaaaarrrrrr too late to decide to dominate it.

 

[Thunderhawks]

Haven't you heard? It's the new thing now in brand marketing to get people who have no connection to you other than being customers to root for you like you're a sports team. They intimately follow corporate head-changing in area that have no impact on product design and wish ill on competitors even when they are the main force that keeps innovation and improvements happening at "your" platform.

Just being a major player isn't enough. You have to WIN.
Because only by being the top dog and eating all the marketshare like Microsoft did once upon a time is the true route to a innovative future that benefits consumers, as Microsoft showed. /smirk

For the moment it looks as if Apple has only the B team playing.

Hard to root for that, when there are no major players on the bench and the coach seems lost.

 

[d656]

Enough of this "valuable" bs

 

[coolfactor]

Not surprising. Apple needs to focus on what brought people to Apple in the first place and quit trying to force An iPad as a Mac replacement or a Watch as an accessory to an iPhone or a car that they have no business making. I love Apple products but the magic has fizzled out as of late

Magic has fizzled out ... OR ... the bar has been raised, and competition is able to create just-as-appealing products for the average consumer. Apple's magic is getting lost in the noise. What do you expect them to do, exactly? Blow our minds every month with something new? That's just plain unrealistic, and irresponsible. I do think annual update are too long, but quarterly updates should be achievable, even if they are smaller, more incremental progressions.

Google has the crown?... blah. Doesn't matter.

 

[dragje]

May be you should read the history of BB and Nokia????

Maybe I should remind you that both Nokia and BB had never gained such astrometric amount of cash as Apple gained in the last 13 years, even if Apple doesn't sell any iPhone then the company still earns a quite impressive amount of money each year.

I don't state that Apple could't become a smaller company compared to it's current status but that will take decades and many many flops. To state that Apple will become the second Nokia or BB, whom don't come close to Apple when it comes to profits, both combined, is next to hilarious also quite absurd.

You have no idea of how much money Apple has cash at hand and how much other disciplines of Apple, including the Apple store, generate pure profits each single month. Less profits, after thirteen years of records, doesn't mean "loss". Before Apple needs to close their stores, fire people off, to become smaller they need to suffer losses and stop expanding. I don't need to explain the opposite of this is the current status,

Apple is continually building more stores, everywhere in the world, and the company is busy with expanding new markets, within healthcare, cars, and maybe even in more areas which are not known to us at this point...

Again, Apple, technically, could become small, but the road to this status is long and not yet in sight to put it very very mildly.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

Your point is valid, but you are mixing Apples and Oranges (sorry for the pun). Yes, the comparison is between Alphabet and Apple's STOCK price, in which it is fair to say that Alphabet has a higher MARKET CAPITALIZATION than Apple.

That says nothing about how PROFITABLE the companies in Alphabet's portfolio are compared to Apple.

However, the Forbes number is an estimate of how VALUABLE THE BRAND of Apple is separate from its physical assets. None of those three can effectively be directly compared to the other as each is a measure of very different things.

Thanks for clearing that up!

 

[bushido]

Wow, the innovation mentioned is too much to take in all at once. Give me some time to process.

compared to apple? yeah.

remember that iPad Air 2 keynote when they called chopping off an additional 0.01 (?) mm innovative? it even deserved its own presentation video and i was like omg seriously

 

[Rocketman]

It's called Alphabet now.

 

[deany]

Is the reason apple has a store in say Liverpool, England population 470,537 but not Dublin, Ireland population 527,612 because of apple's "creative accounting" not really "allowing" a store to open in Ireland?

Of course apple are a big employer in Cork.

 

[Doc C]

Maybe I should remind you that both Nokia and BB had never gained such astrometric amount of cash as Apple gained in the last 13 years, even if Apple doesn't sell any iPhone then the company still earns a quite impressive amount of money each year.

I don't state that Apple could't become a smaller company compared to it's current status but that will take decades and many many flops. To state that Apple will become the second Nokia or BB, whom don't come close to Apple when it comes to profits, both combined, is next to hilarious also quite absurd.

You have no idea of how much money Apple has cash at hand and how much other disciplines of Apple, including the Apple store, generate pure profits each single month. Less profits, after thirteen years of records, doesn't mean "loss". Before Apple needs to close their stores, fire people off, to become smaller they need to suffer losses and stop expanding. I don't need to explain the opposite of this is the current status,

Apple is continually building more stores, everywhere in the world, and the company is busy with expanding their markets, healthcare, cars, and maybe even more things which are not known to this point.

Again, Apple, technically, could become small, but the road to this status is long and not yet in sight to put it very very mildly.

To add to this, I think it's important to look at the numbers from a distance.

If you take a look at the graph of quarterly profits (posted elsewhere), it appears that the iPhone 6/6s actually are blips upwards, rather than the recent quarter being downward. The most recent quarter actually seems to fall right where it should have based on growth projections prior to the release of the "Plus" phones. Given this, it seems reasonable to use prior growth as an estimate of future growth (think long-term, not short), especially since Apple will be moving whole-heartedly into India soon. India may not be quite as "fashion-conscious" as China, however the pent up demand is high. This suggests that there is still a fair bit of runway before Apple runs into their next problem, which will be saturation of the accessible market for them - there is a limited fraction of mobile users that both want an iPhone and can afford one.

From my perspective, the recent change in stock price is neither unexpected, nor worrisome. It really amounts to an over-reaction, and may represent a long-term buying opportunity.

 

[Rocketman]

Is the reason apple has a store in say Liverpool, England population 470,537 but not Dublin, Ireland population 527,612 because of apple's "creative accounting" not really "allowing" a store to open in Ireland?
Of course apple are a big employer in Cork.

Probably. Order on the interwebs.

 

[dragje]

To add to this, I think it's important to look at the numbers from a distance.

If you take a look at the graph of quarterly profits (posted elsewhere), it appears that the iPhone 6/6s actually are blips upwards, rather than the recent quarter being downward. The most recent quarter actually seems to fall right where it should have based on growth projections prior to the release of the "Plus" phones. Given this, it seems reasonable to use prior growth as an estimate of future growth (think long-term, not short), especially since Apple will be moving whole-heartedly into India soon. India may not be quite as "fashion-conscious" as China, however the pent up demand is high. This suggests that there is still a fair bit of runway before Apple runs into their next problem, which will be saturation of the accessible market for them - there is a limited fraction of mobile users that both want an iPhone and can afford one.

From my perspective, the recent change in stock price is neither unexpected, nor worrisome. It really amounts to an over-reaction, and may represent a long-term buying opportunity.

Well put. Couldn't agree more.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

In 2014, Apple got paid $1billion from Google. Apple didn't sell any hardware to Google. Want to guess what Apple sold? Access to iOS user info, or more specifically so that Google search would be the default search engine in Safari.

Same year, Apple also got paid by the music group U2. Again, Apple didn't sell any hardware to them. Apple sold advertising services to them or more specifically Apple added a U2 albulm to all iTunes users account. If someone clicked shuffle music, they were going to hear advertising (u2 music).

Yes, Apple makes $ by having Google as the default search. Yes, it partnered with U2, annoyingly auto-added it to user's accounts. Please, please, show me where any of that income is even visible in Apple's 8.5b profit in 2014. You can't because it's crushed underneath all the money it made from iPhone and Mac sales.

Again, Apple's business model is hardware and related services sales. Google's business model is data collection. That doesn't mean this is what they do exclusively. It means this is how they get fed.

 

[mi7chy]

AAPL stock has been interesting to watch the last few weeks since market cap kept increasing towards $510B as price per share dropped. It's as if some entity was pouring money into buybacks to keep it from crashing further. Effort wasn't enough though to keep the stock from dipping into the $80s causing investors to pull out sending market cap to <$490B.

 

[deputy_doofy]

Ya? Cool. Can you tell me more about Android's innovation?

You know....

Waving your fingers in front of cameras to scroll, and widgets, and themes, and double the cores with double the clock speed and double the RAM (all to make scroll not lag)...

What Android innovation? lol

 

[s15119]

Your welcome. Now, Please Be sure to thank the other kind Macrumors users who messaged stated your a "Newbie Troll" and liked my post several times over.

Any other brain busters today???

Can you please stop with the insults. It doesn't help your case.

 

[admob71]

I continue to buy Apple products for numerous reasons. But one of the big ones is Apple's commitment to protecting user privacy and not selling their personally identifiable information. A policy stance that Google will likely never take.

Sounds like someone has something to hide? ;-)

 

[Solomani]

I hope AAPL stays at #2 or even #3. Apple needs to purge itself from Wall Street distractions like that creepy Icahn guy and all the other hedge fund shorters. Go back to the Steve Jobs mode. Just focus on products and innovation, stop worrying about profits and investors. Apple might not recover the #1 spot again, but if it focuses on products rather than profits, it should remain a viable and revered company for many more years to come.

 

[deany]

Probably. Order on the interwebs.

Yes & if you want to 'see before you buy' you can always pop into a 'Curry's PC world store' rather than a tatty old fashioned run down apple store in Dublin.
nice

 

[admob71]

Same here. I could care less about stock prices since I invest in index funds . As long as the products are useful, of good quality , and my data is protected , I'm happy .

I ditched Google when they changed their privacy policy on Jan 1, 2012 to basically say "all your data are belong to us!"

I do compromise on their search engine , as I have found it does kick arse.

A) you ditched Google because of their privacy policy, but b) you use their search engine. Is this the MR post of the year or what.. hilarious. !!!

Oh, and while we r at it, it's "couldn't care less", not "could care less" , that means something entirely different.

 

[deany]

wow this forum isn't as friendly as it used to be, the times they are a changin'

 

[Zirel]

the way things are projected to go with this year's iphone amid other issues, i don't see them taking that title back any time soon

Just like last time when they did get back in 1 day?

 

[Solomani]

It's called Alphabet now.

Did they invent the Alphabet Soup yet?

 

[DevNull0]

Start innovating again Apple, and maybe customers will continue to buy your products.

Hey, they're innovating like crazy. Their R&D budget is up to $10 billion because of the Apple car and Timmy said his pipeline is clogged with innovation. Like Philly says, can't innovate my ass.

Besides, who cares if their 2016 computers look like crap next to their 2012 computers and the 2016 iPhone looks like a relic from last decade with the huge bezels and old-school lcd screen. it's Apple so it's better.

 

[WiseAJ]

Just like last time when they did get back in 1 day?

They already took it back several hours before the market even closed. It's just that no one wants to report on it.