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

[639051]

Besides investors who cares?

Oh yay Apple is worth a whole lot of money, it has zero meaning to me. Apple products continue to sky rocket in price and heading toward "no afford" territory for me. Oh wait it's been there for awhile.

 

[mithion]

I can't afford to play in Apple's world anymore. Cost of living has gone up too much and my salary hasn't kept up so luxuries like Apple stuff are going the wayside. I hate to say it because I've always loved their stuff, but I think my next laptop will be a PC and my next phone will be a droid. It's been nice while it lasted.

 

[639051]

Microsoft’s cloud services are killing it. Good on them.
Professionally, I just switched from Google’s G Suite to Office 365 and couldn’t be happier.

If you have the "Home" version remember you can share that with 6 other people as well, each of those people also get 1TB of storage, etc.

 

[Baymowe335]

Apple made $60B profit in 2018.

Microsoft made $23B in profit in 2018.

Apple is a much cheaper stock relative to their earnings. Stocks go up and down. Apple is the stronger company and the stock is buy now.

 

[lamunkya]

Well deserved, after two decades of using Apple laptops I find myself more tempted than ever to switch to a Thinkpad or Surface.
Both because Macbooks have changed to no longer suit my needs, and also because Windows 10 and the hardware OEMs seem to have improved a lot lately. And just imagine retrofitting a 1 TB SSD for $200!

 

[twistedpixel8]

I made a comment about Apple's pricing more recently (saying it was getting out of hand) and was told it was because I live in the UK and it's because of Brexit!!

Well, it *was* partly that (GBP weakened) but Apple also greedy. Both to blame.

 

[639051]

I can't afford to play in Apple's world anymore. Cost of living has gone up too much and my salary hasn't kept up so luxuries like Apple stuff are going the wayside. I hate to say it because I've always loved their stuff, but I think my next laptop will be a PC and my next phone will be a droid. It's been nice while it lasted.

Considering you can find used Windows based stuff for a fraction of the price of a used macbook, I had to go back a few months ago. $360 for a Lenovo X1 (5th gen CPU) with upgradable SSD, glad I made the switch.

 

[Khedron]

Apple made $60B profit in 2018.

Microsoft made $23B in profit in 2018.

Apple is a much cheaper stock relative to their earnings. Stocks go up and down. Apple is the stronger company and the stock is buy now.

Nothing collapses faster than a fashion company that suddenly becomes uncool

Apple's earnings are based purely on people currently being willing to pay massive premiums for name recognition, not the quality of products

 

[ChrisMoBro]

The smartphone golden age is over (for now) and Apple thinks the solution is to ramp up the prices to protect their profits. Whilst there will always be the fanboys that will buy their products no matter what, people are starting to realise that spending £1500 on a phone is obscene. Apple needs to cut their margins and bring costs down. Until they do this, their stock price and sales will fall.

 

[NIKKG]

I was planning on selling my Note 8 a while back and getting the XS Max this year, but the price you were asking for it was just ridiculous. I'm not cheap, I got money and a good job, but I'm not a sucker either. So after thinking about it, I took the Samsung $500 trade in offer and traded in my note 8 for a Note 9.

Another lost sale for Apple due to their greed. You have turned off alot of potential customers with your pricing. You deserve all the bad news you get, I hope you learn your lesson and I also hope Tim the Crook goes, need someone with some vision to run this company.

 

[AngerDanger]

I’d kind of like to see Tim’s reaction to this.

 

[AppleCorei7]

But they’re so innovative... selling the same phone over and over. To the people who argue about how the new Xs and Xr series are so great, numbers don’t lie.

 

[coolfactor]

"Apple's stock prices are dropping" has come to mean "Apple's products suck"? What a sad world we live in.

Apple's iOS and macOS and tvOS and watchOS platforms are the best on the market, hands down. The fact that I was able to get a brand new XR at zero upfront cost through my provider shows that their phones are still priced competitively. Macs, on the other hand, are out of my reach at the moment. I really wanted to see a $600 Mac mini, not a $999 base price (in Canada). Sad that it came to this. Buying a used Mac mini is now on the table, and that won't be putting any more money in Apple's bank.

 

[Solomani]

Awesome. Let the vapid tech media and Wall Street shorters resume harassing the King of the Hill which is Apple Microsoft.

 

[TouchMint.com]

The funny thing is msft has a huge stake in apple as well.

Hopefully apple sees the light and reduces some prices. Let’s start with $300 to get an extra 128gb space on a computer....

 

[647156]

Time for another bailout with Internet Explorer being made the default browser on the Mac again in return?...

 

[Bustycat]

The inconsistency of the interface of Windows 10 still sucks.

 

[1050792]

Well this is what happens when you focus on profits over people and you lose focus. The product lineup is overly expensive and confusing. The Macbook weighs less than the MacBook Air? C'mon. You don't sell the Timecapsule anymore because you don't update it and then say that it's not updated enough?

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.

 

[fel10]

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

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

Guess it only means something when Apple is on top right?

 

[coolfactor]

But they’re so innovative... selling the same phone over and over. To the people who argue about how the new Xs and Xr series are so great, numbers don’t lie.

The XR is fantastic! Other than being a bit big for me, it's the best phone I've ever had. I was really hesitant to switch from my preferred SE, but I'll be first to admit — I was wrong. The larger screen and gesture-based interface is absolutely fantastic! I find myself trying to use the gestures on my SE and then I remember I need to use the Home button instead. The gestures really do work perfectly.

 

[coolbreeze2]

If it runs full MacOS then Tim won't get 30% of the revenue from all the apps his company didn't develop

Well he better see the bigger picture! I am a huge Apple fan but I have to admit that the Surface is more of a laptop replacement that the iPad. The only time Android fans can shut me down is when they tell me the iPad is not the best. I just get quiet because I know they are correct.

 

[calzon65]

Nothing collapses faster than a fashion company that suddenly becomes uncool

Apple's earnings are based purely on people currently being willing to pay massive premiums for name recognition, not the quality of products

Well said!

I will admit, however, I love my iPhone and iPad. I also use a Dell laptop with an Office 365 subscription, which I also love.

Unfortunately, I am stuck with an iPhone 6s … the cost to upgrade to a new iPhone it outrageous and I still want my audio jack (screw those Lightning to Audio Jack dongles).

 

[ChrisCW11]

I think 2019 will be interesting for Apple now their pattern of success is starting to prove to be an unreliable formula. They can't just keep releasing more expensive products and not introduce any real new innovation and then expect they will always have a smash hit that keeps the investors happy.

This is where Tim Cook will have to prove his merit. Can hey help drive a new era of Apple success that did not begin with a product blessed by Steve Jobs or will he start to cause the company to circle the drain trying to do the same thing over and over and over again and not adapting to changing markets and consumer mindshare.

It's way to early to say anything about Apple for the long term, but the last quarter of this year has been very tough and unexpected from a company that just got used to crazy growth and success.

In the meantime Microsoft quietly snuck up and figured out how to move past Windows and their failed mobile products to drive a new era of success for themselves.

 

[alex2792]

Microsoft’s cloud services are killing it. Good on them.
Professionally, I just switched from Google’s G Suite to Office 365 and couldn’t be happier.

I don’t understand why anyone, assuming you’re not using Chrome OS, would choose G-suite over Office 365 to run a business. Google’s productivity apps are complete garbage compare to Office. I can see why some broke students go for it since it’s free, but as they say, you get what you pay for.

 

[Stella]

I made a comment about Apple's pricing more recently (saying it was getting out of hand) and was told it was because I live in the UK and it's because of Brexit!!

That's obviously utter BS, since the UK is still in the EU, and don't leave until next year! ( Although, weaker GBP as a result of the Brexit vote)

The reality is, Apple pricing is crazy, in general.