Google Surpasses Apple as World's Most Valuable Company

[MacRumors]

Google's parent company, Alphabet, is encroaching on Apple's status as the most valuable company in the world, reports CNN. While Apple is currently on top, a surge in Alphabet shares today gave it a market valuation of $533.4 billion, briefly surpassing Apple's valuation of $532.7 billion on a 1 percent stock drop.

Alphabet shares dropped shortly after, leaving Apple at a higher valuation, but the numbers could shift again tomorrow following Alphabet's first financial earnings report this afternoon. Alphabet is expected to announce overall revenue growth of close to 15 percent with a 20 percent increase in earnings per share.

Over the course of the last several months, Apple shares have fallen steadily, dropping its peak valuation of $740 billion to ~$540 billion. Despite record earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2016, with revenue of $75.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $18.4 billion, Apple has not bounced back from rumors that the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s are not selling well and concerns that the company has reached "peak iPhone" with no replacement product on the horizon.

Apple is in for a rough second quarter as the company is expected to announce its first ever decline in iPhone sales and its first year-over-year revenue drop in thirteen years. Currency headwinds caused by a strong U.S. dollar are costing Apple a significant percent of its earnings compared to the year-ago quarter.

Update 1:05 PM: Alphabet is up another 8 percent in after hours trading following a strong earnings report, meaning Alphabet will almost certainly open trading tomorrow at a higher valuation than Apple.

Article Link: Google Surpasses Apple as World's Most Valuable Company

 

[Mr. Donahue]

Prolly cause Apple Music isn't working right. I tweeted Timmy this morning. He better get on that. This is unacceptable.

 

[johnalan]

A) This is completely non news.
B) I'm glad two top tier tech companies are the biggest in the world. It was such a shame when the biggest companies were archaic oil dealers.

 

[Sloppy.Joe]

That's it. Apple's finished!

 

[thekeyring]

Wow, Wall Street really does look at growth over absolute earnings. After all, if you remove iPhone from Apple's balance sheet, it still makes roughly the same as Google.

 

[MartinAppleGuy]

Macbook should have had two USB ports.
iPad Pro should have ran a tweaked version of OS X geared for touch.
iMac 4K should have came with an SSD.
Apple TV should have had 4K compatibility for use with home videos shot on iPhone 6S.
iPad Pro should have 128GB base storage, and have the 32GB model only sold as an enterprise model.

These are all things people seem to agree on, and there isn't much of an argument for Apple to have done this. Just start finishing your products before you release them Apple...

 

[Mackinjosh]

Good. Google actually tries to innovate. Apple continues to regurgitate.

 

[GFLPraxis]

Macbook should have had two USB ports.
iPad Pro should have ran a tweaked version of OS X geared for touch.
iMac 4K should have came with an SSD.
Apple TV should have had 4K compatibility for use with home videos shot on iPhone 6S.
iPad Pro should have 128GB base storage, and have the 32GB model only sold as an enterprise model.

These are all things people seem to agree on, and there isn't much of an argument for Apple to have done this. Just start finishing your products before you release them Apple...

The thing I really don't get is how Apple is trying to pose the iPad Pro as a monster 4K video editing machine, yet there's no way to actually get 4K content on it. WiFi isn't fast enough to move Raw DV 4K content over.

The iPad Pro needs something akin to Thunderbolt to be used for video editing in the way Apple wants to imply it can be.

Disclaimer: My wife has an iPad Pro for artwork and we both love it. I just can't imagine anyone editing 4K video on it. It'd be a huge pain just to get the video on it, not to mention storage.

 

[garirry]

Macbook should have had two USB ports.
iPad Pro should have ran a tweaked version of OS X geared for touch.
iMac 4K should have came with an SSD.
Apple TV should have had 4K compatibility for use with home videos shot on iPhone 6S.
iPad Pro should have 128GB base storage, and have the 32GB model only sold as an enterprise model.

These are all things people seem to agree on, and there isn't much of an argument for Apple to have done this. Just start finishing your products before you release them Apple...

Agreed. They themselves forget that if they do this instead of being money-greedy, much more people will want to purchase those products instead of looking for alternatives.

 

[thekeyring]

Good. Google actually tries to innovate. Apple continues to regurgitate.

Google shares what they're working on, Apple doesn't. Look at Google Glass - was that a successful product? No. If Apple had a product that flopped like that, there would be talk in this forum of firing Tim Cook.

 

[Jaaz]

A) This is completely non news.
B) I'm glad two top tier tech companies are the biggest in the world. It was such a shame when the biggest companies were archaic oil dealers.

You mean the archaic oil companies powering the world nowadays?

 

[Michael Goff]

Macbook should have had two USB ports.
iPad Pro should have ran a tweaked version of OS X geared for touch.
iMac 4K should have came with an SSD.
Apple TV should have had 4K compatibility for use with home videos shot on iPhone 6S.
iPad Pro should have 128GB base storage, and have the 32GB model only sold as an enterprise model.

These are all things people seem to agree on, and there isn't much of an argument for Apple to have done this. Just start finishing your products before you release them Apple...

Good news: iOS is OS X geared for touch. Go back and watch the keynote where Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone.

 

[cycomiko]

You mean the archaic oil companies powering the world nowadays?

Archaic oil companies enabling shipping of product from China to your doorstep

 

[KPOM]

There will be more calls for a change at the top at Apple now. Alphabet is seen as the true innovator, and Android the clear winner in mobile.

 

[Orlandoech]

The thing I really don't get is how Apple is trying to pose the iPad Pro as a monster 4K video editing machine, yet there's no way to actually get 4K content on it. WiFi isn't fast enough to move Raw DV 4K content over.

The iPad Pro needs something akin to Thunderbolt to be used for video editing in the way Apple wants to imply it can be.

Disclaimer: My wife has an iPad Pro for artwork and we both love it. I just can't imagine anyone editing 4K video on it. It'd be a huge pain just to get the video on it, not to mention storage.

Because they are GOD at making consumers believe what they need, so consumers consume and Apple wins once the item is purchased. Then all the workarounds, adapters, etc are solely on the owner, not Apple.

 

[KPOM]

Remember, the Street doesn't care about profits. They care about profit growth. It looks like Apple is a one-trick pony in a declining industry, while Alphabet is pushing forward. It might be time for Apple to use some of that cash to make a big acquisition. That would be better than using it for more stock buybacks, which will just reinforce the image that Apple is a declining business.

 

[Shaun.P]

I don't understand how a company with much less revenue and profit (and money in the bank) can be worth more than Apple?

 

[npmacuser5]

So bigger is better?

 

[KPOM]

I don't understand how a company with much less revenue and profit (and money in the bank) can be worth more than Apple?

It's all about growth. The concern is that Apple has peaked, and its profits have nowhere to go but down, while Alphabet's are growing.

 

[AppleMark]

Macbook should have had two USB ports.
iPad Pro should have ran a tweaked version of OS X geared for touch.
iMac 4K should have came with an SSD.
Apple TV should have had 4K compatibility for use with home videos shot on iPhone 6S.
iPad Pro should have 128GB base storage, and have the 32GB model only sold as an enterprise model.

These are all things people seem to agree on, and there isn't much of an argument for Apple to have done this. Just start finishing your products before you release them Apple...

Then how will they get you to 'upgrade' and keep their market share (and company value) high enough to surpass Google next year, if they do not get you to buy a product at least twice?

Apple's product policy is not releasing the best possible device, but just good enough to be what they feel is class leading, to get you to buy the product again with 'updates' they could have implemented on launch day the next year.

 

[djgamble]

Macbook should have had two USB ports.
iPad Pro should have ran a tweaked version of OS X geared for touch.
iMac 4K should have came with an SSD.
Apple TV should have had 4K compatibility for use with home videos shot on iPhone 6S.
iPad Pro should have 128GB base storage, and have the 32GB model only sold as an enterprise model.

These are all things people seem to agree on, and there isn't much of an argument for Apple to have done this. Just start finishing your products before you release them Apple...

MBPs/Minis should come with PROPER graphics cards, expandable RAM and space for a new HD. Even with high-end MBPs/Minis you're crippled by in-built graphics (even if you pay $5k+ for a machine with maxed out RAM, maxed out HD, retina display and the fastest i7). IMO this is a massive farce...

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

Which company makes more money? Besides, totally different companies. Stock price is ******** based on speculation.

 

[yaxomoxay]

what destroyed apple is the lack of OSX on iPads.

#doomed

 

[RedOrchestra]

Google shares what they're working on, Apple doesn't. Look at Google Glass - was that a successful product? No. If Apple had a product that flopped like that, there would be talk in this forum of firing Tim Cook.

well only selling 2 million iPad Pros in the LAUNCH quarter after all the hype Apple gave it last September has to be pretty disappointing. How about they tell us actual iWatch sales.

 

[Lazy]

It's all about growth. The concern is that Apple has peaked, and its profits have nowhere to go but down, while Alphabet's are growing.

True that that's why, but Apple's P/E is less than 11, while Alphabet's is 35. If Apple just maintained their current profits they'd still be way ahead of Google for a long time. Apple is clearly undervalued while Google has a lot of optimism and trend-betting factored into its price.