Microsoft Passes Apple to Become Most Valuable U.S. Company

[Analog Kid]

Say what you will about the stock market, but I still believe fundamentals matter. I bought MSFT when Balmer announced his retirement because leadership matters and it was clear that Balmer's 1980's attitude was destroying 2000's Microsoft. Looks like maybe I made a good call there...

That said, I find it hilarious how people are acting like Apple becoming the worlds second most valuable company suggests that they're somehow done. If nothing else, seeing Microsoft rise to the top in this day and age shows how hard it is for a behemoth to die...

 

[Naaaaak]

The iPad Pro is running an old 2008 phone software with a mobile phone browser as it’s only option exactly where Scott Forstall left it. Why bother improving with it when Apple can just make the fonts skinnier are brighter and more colorful.

Over 3 years ago Tim Cook said:
“The iPad is the clearest expression of our vision of the future of personal computing.”

How has iOS meaningfully changed for iPad since then?

Apple's vision for the future is a big-screened iPhone where you have 1 vendor to buy software from (Apple), and that vendor (Apple) has full-control over what's approved and how it's developed.

Microsoft's market ambitions of the 90s weren't this dystopian.

 

[odoy]

and it will comes better. What’s the cash cow? The iPhone and Apple earns a lot of money through the app store.
Now apple wants to make the same profit with more expensive phones and a lower user base. Thats ok.
..ok for a car manufacturer or a cloth label.
but with a lower user base apple could not make that profit on the App Store. I don’t think devs can rise their prices as apple do.
And when the development is unprofitable, there is no reason to continue.
Result: high priced phone without interesting apps. At this point apple has a big problem.

Call me analyst. no thats a joke. its easy to see this coming, expect your name is Tim Cook

btw my sig is 3 years old

 

[smorrissey]

HA! at the local maál, i see a sea of people in an apple store while i witness a wisp at the micro-windows store
[doublepost=1543271106][/doublepost]
can we humans still get windows 7? can that work on a new dell laptop?

mmm good question, guess it works for me cause my PC is as old as Windows 7 lol.....

Waiting for Extended support until January 14, 2020 to change them all, want it or not....

 

[richpjr]

Will there be a watch band edition to commemorate this occasion?

Yes, it will be all black and blue.

 

[rp2011]

Over 3 years ago Tim Cook said:
“The iPad is the clearest expression of our vision of the future of personal computing.”

How has iOS meaningfully changed for iPad since then?

Apple's vision for the future is a big-screened iPhone where you have 1 vendor to buy software from (Apple), and that vendor (Apple) has full-control over what's approved and how it's developed.

Microsoft's market ambitions of the 90s weren't this dystopian.

The moral of the story is, when you have an old bread and butter product making you lots and lots of money, why mess with anything else? Why change anything?

And if anyone is is giving you a hard time, perhaps causing friction, then fire him and put the designer in charge of software. Skinnier fonts, brighter more colorful and playful is all the innovation software ever needs.

Steve Jobs liked having friction and competing ideas that he could ultimately choose from. Cook likes peace and harmony above all else.

 

[Vasilioskn]

This is fantastic news. Hopefully Apple goes down even more so they can realize what nonsense they’re pulling these days.

 

[Glockworkorange]

It was never going to last forever...

Please don’t repond by raising prices again.

I think we should have a three to four year freeze on price hikes after 2018.

 

[Khedron]

I've been using one drive for many years never a hitch between windows, windows phones, and android phones. I've found Apple doesnt play nice with anyone else.

Yep. I'm currently in the process of ditching iCloud. I can't even look at my photos from a non-Apple device. Pathetic.

 

[shareef777]

Microsoft is improving as a company. MacOS is still leaps and bounds better than Windows as software. You can only clean out so much legacy cruft without a clean start (like OS X did).

However, I will say: Microsoft is pushing forward the envelope of Windows laptop hardware design with the Surface. Meanwhile, Apple is pushing their premiums higher and higher. It's frustrating. I like OS X much, much more than Windows but I increasingly feel fleeced as Microsoft narrows the gap in hardware quality while Apple raises the prices.

I’m in agreement. Apples products (both hardware and software) are better, but it seems that their prices are outgrowing just how much better they are.

 

[groadyho]

I think Apple is actually going back to what it was doing before pre-iPhone by increasing its prices and not going for the masses.

They never had a product that was adopted by a sizable amount of people before the iPhone (except maybe the iPod line but that was more of an accessory). I think the market share of Macs is still below 10%. They've always built great premium products at a premium price (whether justified or not). It's just since the iPhone that they have been trying or at least touting a large market share for a product.

Mac has 7.9% market share, down 24%

 

[DNichter]

Over 3 years ago Tim Cook said:
“The iPad is the clearest expression of our vision of the future of personal computing.”

How has iOS meaningfully changed for iPad since then?

Apple's vision for the future is a big-screened iPhone where you have 1 vendor to buy software from (Apple), and that vendor (Apple) has full-control over what's approved and how it's developed.

Microsoft's market ambitions of the 90s weren't this dystopian.

iPad and iOS has changed quite a bit since 3 years ago. The new dock, better split screen and app switcher, drag and drop between apps, better multitasking screen with grouped apps, files app that integrates with NAS storage and cloud services, desktop level power, and a bigger selection of professional software. I use an iPad Pro as my primary computer and I’ll be the first to admit its not nearly where it should be at this point, but they are getting closer each year. iPad’s already sell more than Mac’s, this will only continue as they expand the platform. iOS 13 is rumored to include a new home screen, tabbed apps, and external storage support. All good improvements. A lot has changed since iOS 9.

 

[canesalato]

See my signature

 

[scrapesleon]

when you at the top the only where to go is down

 

[ajfahey]

This should be no surprise. Microsoft is innovating. Apple's designs are long in the tooth, with innovation restricted mostly to increasingly reduced, incremental improvements. My household is entirely in the Apple ecosystem and I have money to spend on compelling products. Right now, my dollars are spent on replacing hardware that is worn out. Compelling solutions are called for. Thinness and lightness have lost their allure.

 

[doctor-don]

“Oh no apple is doomed, Bill Gates has actually won!!!!!”..

It’s just a number, doesn’t mean much.

EXACTLY!

Well well well. Funny how these things work in cycles. What's the betting we see Microsoft rise to the top again and Apple will be the lesser of the two and then 20 years later we'll watch the same thing happen in reverse.

I reckon flares will be the next cool thing soon enough!!

Don't believe it will be 20 years - not even 20 weeks.

Well done Tim

Your greed paid off for one quarter, got your bonus, and now Apple is tanked

Cannot blame ONE person when the people who buy and sell stocks are the ones who determine the price.

And the price for a share of stock was lower than the $170 black in April and earlier. Prices rise and fall.

–––––––––––
WHERE IS THE NEW MAC PRO?

 

[sdwaltz]

What issues did you have? OneDrive has been great for me.

Half the time, if I open a document from OneDrive, work on it, save it, and then open it on a different device later, none of the changes have saved. Super annoying. iCloud on the other hand has been seamless for me in every instance.

 

[shareef777]

Keep jumping up the prices for new devices by 30% every year while offering little in return and see who else will pass Apple by, Timmy.

My thoughts as well. And this is from the people that actually still buy their over-priced devices. I can’t imagine how much smaller this group will be in a few years time.
[doublepost=1543279443][/doublepost]

Half the time, if I open a document from OneDrive, work on it, save it, and then open it on a different device later, none of the changes have saved. Super annoying. iCloud on the other hand has been seamless for me in every instance.

You must be relatively new. Cause iCloud and seamless don’t go hand in hand. Shoot just last week there was a significant outage in Apple cloud services.

 

[ChrisMoBro]

The golden age of the smartphone is just beginning, there are still billions of people who don't have phones. Apple just won't be the one to sell phones to those people because their prices are too high.

I don't see how Apple can get from where they are now to where they need to be to sell phones to the next billion customers. Maybe they should buy an Android OEM.

I’m referring to the technology side of things in terms of the golden age. All companies are struggling to really stand out and develop truly innovative, new technologies.

 

[mi7chy]

What ruined Apple wasn’t growth … They got very greedy … Instead of following the original trajectory of the original vision, which was to make the thing an appliance and get this out there to as many people as possible … they went for profits. They made outlandish profits for about four years. One of the most profitable companies in America for four years. And what that cost them was their future. - Steve Jobs, 1995

 

[Michael Scrip]

8:00pm - It looks like AAPL is above MSFT again in terms of market cap.

NOBODY FREAK OUT!!!

 

[Peepo]

This is the first year since 2009 that I have not bought a new iPhone and I am sticking with iPhone X for at least another year.

I would like a new MacBook Pro (or even considered a MacBook Air) to upgrade my 2013, and maybe a new iPad Pro but they are all just too expensive. I cannot be the only long-time Apple fan who thinks like this and has stopped buying.

Hearing this news honestly makes me start to lose faith in Apple, and seriously entertain the possibility that I may be eventually dumping Apple all together and going to Windows or Android.

 

[Spankey]

Game companies simply don't want to make native games for Mac. There's no money in it. And their ports usually suck. Just use Boot Camp to install Windows and game from there. That's what I've done for more than a decade.

Oh, I’ve done that. And installed an Nvidia eGPU. Windows 10 has been running almost exclusively. I really don’t see the need to boot into Mojave. If it wasn’t for the hardware I would have switched for my desktop.

 

[mikethemartian]

Except that people won't stop purchasing a product because of a "messing product line" what stops people from buying are the insane prices which Apple increased over the years to keep their profits as high as they can be. Timecapsule was never the most sold product from Apple, so why keep "updating" it? I doubt they lost their first place because of lack of updates to the Timecapsule.

The value of selling Time Capsules and AirPorts is that they made the Mac more attractive because everything was seamless.

 

[I7guy]

This is fantastic news. Hopefully Apple goes down even more so they can realize what nonsense they’re pulling these days.

As fast as they went down, they could head back up.