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

[Nuno Lopes]

Why $1? The flagship is at least $350 more expansive than 2012.
[doublepost=1543343425][/doublepost]

First and foremost it means that Apple increased the price more than competitors. If it is cost driven, they should try to figure out why they are producing so much more costly than others. If it is driven by internal margin targets they should consider if these targets can be secured in the long run with a shrinking less loyal customer base. I doubt it. And apparently a growing number of investors doubt it as well.

It is actually around $500 more expensive but who is counting? If we do not take into account the XS Max that is.

Wether a fully packed iPhone XS it is $500 more valued today than the fully packed iPhone 5 was back in its time, that its another matter. Yet we need not to forget that when the iPhone 3GS came out, its cost $599 ... and that was a revolutionary device (it also had a shiny frame) !!!!!!!

 

[kwikdeth]

The new Apple iWallet. It's... Thinner.

 

[TallManNY]

I’m sorry, but your analysis makes no sense. First, I’m a shareholder and have complained about Cook’s direction for Apple for years now. I don’t think Cook has acted in my interests, provided I’ve lost over half a million dollars on paper since early October.

There is no way that Apple would let go of the Mac division. That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. It would provide such a leverage over the Apple’s core business (iPhone) to whomever would buy the Mac division that no sane CEO would ever do this.

Funally, as a shareholder, i would love for the stock to climb back up, so as far as I’m concerned, Cook is done. Time for him to go.

Time for Cook to go because the stock went up 20% in the first part of 2018 and then dropped 20% in the last month or so of 2018? The stock is flat over the last year, while profits are up.

But of course there is no way Apple gives up the Mac division. It is almost certainly the most profitable computer company. And it is poised to make huge gains once Apple switches from Intel to their own chips.

 

[Edsel]

I'm returning to Linux. Just bought a brand new $300.00 HP i3 notebook with 4mb ram and 128Gb SSD. Hello Arch Linux or easy UBUNTU. Or, maybe IBM RedHat, LOL.

Corporate Profits? It's all about the cloud, not the hardware.

 

[duffmanth]

Keep pricing yourself out of the market Apple, greedy ****s.

 

[lec0rsaire]

Microsoft’s success has not been so much based on consumer products but entreprise solutions especially Azure. They also make a fortune from selling Office 365 and you can’t forget Windows.

Their Xbox One business has also been doing better. They have righted the ship compared to the original Xbox One they released. I just bought an Xbox One X with RDR2 yesterday for $343 tax+shipping included and that was a great deal for the most powerful console with the game of the year.

 

[Sabelonada]

I'm returning to Linux. Just bought a brand new $300.00 HP i3 notebook with 4mb ram and 128Gb SSD. Hello Arch Linux or easy UBUNTU. Or, maybe IBM RedHat, LOL.

Corporate Profits? It's all about the cloud, not the hardware.

Oh the howling about the similarly spec'd Mac mini and how utterly inadequate it is.

 

[Rob_2811]

That apple hiked up the prices is not really true. In 2012 an iphone 5 went from $649 to $849. Carrier subsidies were in full swing then so the price was really hidden in the contracts. In 2018 iphones range in price from $449 to $1500. A much broader range. Top tier in 2012 is different than top tier in 2018.

"different" = more expensive

 

[koruki]

rofl at all the doom and gloom, Apple back to SECOND MOST VALUABLE COMPANY IN THE WHOLE DAMN WORLD.. not dropping like a fly ffs. For the record i hate all their new products too

 

[sidewinder3000]

Stocks are notoriously finicky, and the market is often a moron, so this event in and of itself doesn’t necessarily mean Apple is tanking or that Microsoft is great. But Microsoft is doing some really interesting and innovative things, and Apple would be well served to regroup and refocus on customer and user focused priorities like: making Siri best-in-class, making Maps best-in-class, making HomeKit best-in-class, adding a “pro” or “advanced” level customization to ALL Apple software (everything from iOS home screen to Keynote), create an iPad OS that unlocks the power of iPad, continue and redouble their focus on pro users (and promise never to disappear again), updating all products on a regular basis to help customers who rely on Apple products buy when they need something and not get ripped off with a 3 year old model (e.g. stop ignoring product updates for products like iPad mini), broadening product offerings to make staying in the Apple ecosystem more pleasant (e.g. where is the HomePod mini?), get over their bias against things like a two button mouse, stylus for iPhone, trackpad for iPad keyboard, touchscreen Macs, etc.), change from a focus on simplicity to a focus on ease-of-use and power, start innovating (and occasionally failing), the list goes on and on...

The point is: Apple needs to make some important changes in their approach or they will become what Microsoft was for years: conservative, afraid, and uninspiring.

 

[smirking]

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.

Also a warning sign to all who think that Silicon Valley is no longer prone to its habit of boom and bust cycles for the reasons that we're not just known for start-ups anymore. Anyone who thinks that life around here is just going to be characterized by peaks and plateaus without ever sniffing the violent financial valleys that created the dynamic landscape here has not lived here long enough.

 

[ftaok]

Weird way of thinking... in 5 years the quality of the camera, battery, screen etc. will be crap compared what’s on the market as will the storage. I don’t argue that the A-chips aren’t good, but in 5 years I may assume the A-chip will be 5 times better, screens will be better, you’ll have more storage, faster lte, better batteries. Electronics don’t have a compelling lifespan. What’s introduced today will be outdated tomorrow. That’s why every electronic company update their products every year, except Apple (computers) and that’s their mistake.

Well obviously the newer devices will be better than older ones. People are holding on to their phones longer. This has been shown in a few studies. Apple even mentioned it in the most recent WWDC.

OK, so even if you want a new phone every 2 years, the one that you would upgrade from is worth more than what they were several years ago. So even then, the overall cost of ownership hasn't really increased even with the increased prices.
[doublepost=1543355122][/doublepost]Don't look now, but AAPL is back above MSFT. Where are all of the stories pointing this out?

 

[spiddyman007]

Microsoft today surpassed Apple to become the world's most valuable publicly traded company as a result of Apple's continually declining share price, reports Business Insider.

Microsoft has reached a market capitalization of approximately $814 billion, while Apple's is now slightly less.

Apple earlier this year became the world's only trillion dollar publicly traded company, but it lost that status in November and its market cap has steadily declined since then over concerns of weak iPhone sales and its announcement that it will no longer share iPhone, iPad, and Mac sales on a unit basis.

According to Bloomberg, Microsoft's market cap has not previously matched Apple's since mid-2010, eight years ago.

Microsoft's growing cloud business and strong PC sales made Microsoft one of the few tech companies to grow in value following its September quarter earnings results. Apple's valuation, meanwhile, has fallen more than 20 percent since its own earnings results.

Microsoft shares hit a high of $105.94 in intra-day trading, while Apple's have dropped to a low of $170.27. As stock prices fluctuate, Microsoft and Apple are now competing for the most valuable company title with the lead company shifting back and forth.


Article Link: Microsoft Passes Apple to Become Most Valuable U.S. Company

How tf is amazon not on top yet tho.

 

[kazmac]

Good for Microsoft! Competition is great.

While it stinks they’ve emulated Apple’s price hikes (and use older internals), their hardware design for the Surface line has been very creative these past few years.

 

[Edsel]

Oh the howling about the similarly spec'd Mac mini and how utterly inadequate it is.

The cheapest i3 Mac Mini is $800.00 and doesn’t have the 14” 1080 display, backlit keyboard and portability. All the Mini really has is Linux’s grand daddy’s operating system. Apple has become a fashion business.

 

[greenmeanie]

At this point I feel INSANELY stupid if I pay Apples sky high prices.
I want the new mac pro but after the price of the imac pro I have no hope the price will be reasonable.

 

[mi7chy]

My Outlook for 2019:

#1 Amazon
#2 Microsoft and Google
#3 Apple

 

[fairuz]

Really? Seems a lot of corporations are going the o365 route, that's a constant requirement in most job postings in my field.

Also, wasn't buying Apple products nor stock "back then".

Cause IT people always buy Microsoft stuff for whatever reason, I guess cause they grew up with it. Except when companies specifically hire Microsoft-free IT.

 

[steve333]

I guess there's a price to pay for Apple's arrogance.
Finally
[doublepost=1543368888][/doublepost]

True. Apple had never been the most valuable U.S company when Steve Jobs was alive.

He's the reason Apple made it this far, it sure isn't because of Cook

 

[lowendlinux]

This is appropriate

 

[1050792]

I guess there's a price to pay for Apple's arrogance.
Finally
[doublepost=1543368888][/doublepost]
He's the reason Apple made it this far, it sure isn't because of Cook

That was still not my point and you know it.

 

[I7guy]

I guess there's a price to pay for Apple's arrogance.
Finally

Reading posts like this make me wonder how people felt, (those who "hate" Cook) when apple hit $1T as they will again. (Hint: It was all Cook that did it)
[doublepost=1543371400][/doublepost]

I made no consideration about what Apple is supposed to do or what they are allowed to do.

I have said they are increasing the prices of their products for years now. I also think pricing customers out is an agressive move against their customer base that can have unpredictable effects.

Define a price increase? That is so nebulous a concept when it comes to a new product that didn't exist before. Is apple supposed to hold the price of newly released technology at exactly the same as last year? Or can apple price it for what they deem is an appropriate price?

 

[dankron]

Although i HATE Microshit and any of their products, i'm actually happy this is happening, maybe now, Tim ******** Cook is going to wake up and start innovating the market, creating products that people like to buy and stop removing things from products (all ports on MacBook "pro", but the headphones), apple lost it big time after steve died, unfortunately thats the reality, i still can't understand how a basic thing like that would have pass quality control? why would you remove headphone jack of iPhones and iPads and leave it on a mac? so now you need to carry 2 sets of headphones as the headphones that comes with you iPhone won't work on your mac...

Not to mention all the rest of the ports on new MacBook pros? could have at least kept the SD card reader, how can you even call it "PRO" if you need to carry a fk load of dongles to make it work as a pro?

And by the looks of it, the new Samsung S10 is going to sht all over the new iPhone Xs.

So if any of the Cnts at crApple are reading this:

GET YOUR SHT TOGETHER AND, START INNOVATING AGAIN. Revenue and market value will then follow.

 

[dilbert99]

MSFT is already more than 3X as expensive of a stock as AAPL, so Mr. Market has already rewarded Microsoft. Now they have to keep up the growth, or the stock will tank because they don’t have the profit to back up the price. Let’s look closer at the numbers. All facts, not feeling or speculation.

Apple also has a $40B services business growing in double digits.

iPhone sales (revenue) grew 18% y/y.

Overall, Apple has about $150B more revenue than MSFT and almost 3X the profit while trading at 13X earnings versus 40 times for MSFT.

From 2017 to 2018, Apple grew overall revenue by 16%. Microsoft grew overall revenue by 22%. Microsoft had better growth, but is that worth 40X earnings? We will see.

Apple is also buying back $100B in stock (now roughly 12% of the company) in 1 year. Just the buyback will grow eps by over 10% with zero profit growth.

Given the facts and growth, AAPL is objectively the cheaper stock. We will find out if it’s too cheap and if MSFT is too expensive. Let’s give this a little longer than a 6 week timeframe to judge Apple.

So now that apples shareprice has taken a dive. How many dollars have you decided to put up to buy it low?
[doublepost=1543373218][/doublepost]

Reading posts like this make me wonder how people felt, (those who "hate" Cook) when apple hit $1T as they will again. (Hint: It was all Cook that did it)
[doublepost=1543371400][/doublepost]
Define a price increase? That is so nebulous a concept when it comes to a new product that didn't exist before. Is apple supposed to hold the price of newly released technology at exactly the same as last year? Or can apple price it for what they deem is an appropriate price?

Average selling price is going up because the prices are going up. Why do you say prices are not going up in contradiction to this fact?

My first iPhone was something like $500-$600 dollars and the iPhone I bought at the weekend was something like $1400+ can’t remember the exact amounts.

That is a massive increase any way you slice it. Way more than 100%

 

[639051]

Cause IT people always buy Microsoft stuff for whatever reason, I guess cause they grew up with it. Except when companies specifically hire Microsoft-free IT.

Wow what a terrible generalization there. “Microsoft free IT”? Good lord man, you’re simply speaking out of ignorance here. Stop while you’re not as far behind.