Apple topples Microsoft's throne

[vta]

Link

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Microsoft's dominance as the tech industry's most valuable player has ended.

On Wednesday, Apple's market capitalization edged past its longtime rival's as investors made official what consumers have long suggested: Microsoft is no longer the industry's alpha dog. Just last month, Microsoft's market cap exceeded Apple's by about $25 billion, but now Apple is in the lead by nearly $3 billion.

Microsoft's consumer products business is struggling to compete as Apple's hot new items like iPad and iPhone capture the attention of customers. Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) fell 4% to close at $25.01 on Wednesday, while Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) lost 0.45%, closing at $244.11.

Shares of Microsoft have dipped more than 15% in the past couple weeks, while Apple's stock is down just over 6%, despite recent market volatility. "What this really means is that Wall Street has more confidence in Apple's growth prospects than it does in Microsoft's growth prospects," said Matt Rosoff, lead analyst at Directions on Microsoft, an independent firm.

"Apple is showing high growth, with the launch of its iPad and its new iPhone coming out, and while Windows is a great competitor versus the Mac, Microsoft just hasn't come up with new areas of growth." Microsoft's reputation as a market leader took another hit Tuesday when the company announced that it plans to shake up its management structure.

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[Kangaroo]

Link

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Microsoft's dominance as the tech industry's most valuable player has ended.

On Wednesday, Apple's market capitalization edged past its longtime rival's as investors made official what consumers have long suggested: Microsoft is no longer the industry's alpha dog. Just last month, Microsoft's market cap exceeded Apple's by about $25 billion, but now Apple is in the lead by nearly $3 billion.

Microsoft's consumer products business is struggling to compete as Apple's hot new items like iPad and iPhone capture the attention of customers. Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) fell 4% to close at $25.01 on Wednesday, while Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) lost 0.45%, closing at $244.11.

Shares of Microsoft have dipped more than 15% in the past couple weeks, while Apple's stock is down just over 6%, despite recent market volatility. "What this really means is that Wall Street has more confidence in Apple's growth prospects than it does in Microsoft's growth prospects," said Matt Rosoff, lead analyst at Directions on Microsoft, an independent firm.

"Apple is showing high growth, with the launch of its iPad and its new iPhone coming out, and while Windows is a great competitor versus the Mac, Microsoft just hasn't come up with new areas of growth." Microsoft's reputation as a market leader took another hit Tuesday when the company announced that it plans to shake up its management structure.

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Microsoft consumer products division has always sucked other than the xbox they put out crap. Windows Mobile sucks big balls Google Droid destroys it on so many levels, XP embedded etc why when people are taking Linux kernels and making them into mobile OS cheaper than the Microsoft licensing fee for any of the Microsoft embedded stuff. There phones are crap and their marketing in this side sucks as well.

On to apple I am not that impressed we have 5 of those pads and all acts like is a big Itouch. They are very limited in usefulness

 

[theogt]

Apple's current valuation seems a bit silly to me, but what do I know.

 

[Kangaroo]

Apple's current valuation seems a bit silly to me, but what do I know.

I have to agree but people are buying into the hype. I do not see it but more power to them if I had their stock i sell it for large profit to the idiots gobbling it up at that price

 

[trickblue]

This is REALLY gonna piss off nyc...

 

[vta]

On to apple I am not that impressed we have 5 of those pads and all acts like is a big Itouch. They are very limited in usefulness

Where you work? I'm surprised a company would buy them, they don't seem very useful as business machines.

 

[Cowboy Brian]

Where you work? I'm surprised a company would buy them, they don't seem very useful as business machines.

Put em in lunchroom to read email?

 

[Kangaroo]

Where you work? I'm surprised a company would buy them, they don't seem very useful as business machines.

Doctors which have no clue they are not very useful they see some neat gizmo and they want it. The only good thing to come out of it is now I can RDP into my workstation from my Droid Phone

 

[vta]

Put em in lunchroom to read email?

If anyone at my company suggested I read email while I'm on lunch, I'd break that iPad over someone's head.

 

[Kangaroo]

Put em in lunchroom to read email?

That is worse apples interface into Exchange is a pile of headaches. Then you have to lock them down to keep from having them walk off defeating the entire purpose of being portable.

Nope For email I put a citric client with a flat panel and publish from citrix. Now I have a lockdown environment that does what I need and has less of a footprint to be hacked in a place like a lunch room. There are about 5 ways to do it in this method you could also go go streaming desktop or VM that connect back to servers on the back end etc

Yea from a big picture thing bad idea and the support just got a lot eaiser with the dumb terminal

 

[YosemiteSam]

The last stock I would own right now is Apple. That **** is so freaking overpriced it's stupid.

Apple is mainly a niche market and it has the biggest market cap? That is flat out ignorant.

 

[Maikeru-sama]

Oh, something tells me that Ol Bill Gates will be fine.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Oh, something tells me that Ol Bill Gates will be fine.

The kids don't have to worry about their inheritance do they.

 

[theogt]

The last stock I would own right now is Apple. That **** is so freaking overpriced it's stupid.

Apple is mainly a niche market and it has the biggest market cap? That is flat out ignorant.

$14 billion in revenue and nearly $60 billion in assets for a niche market?

It has a higher P/E than Microsoft (20 vs. 12) because it's viewed as a growth stock. And given it's recent trends, that's logical.

 

[vta]

The last stock I would own right now is Apple. That **** is so freaking overpriced it's stupid.

Apple is mainly a niche market and it has the biggest market cap? That is flat out ignorant.

Right now? Yeah, that's why my cousin sold his. If I had been as shrewd as he, I would have also bought it $13.00 a share and made a bundle. :laugh2:

It's no worse really than Google, which doesn't even sell a tangible product. It amazes me that they can be so powerful, yet afford nothing substantial really. No hardware, not even industry standard softwares. Just a search engine, a browser and a mobile phone OS. Incredible.

 

[Doomsday]

Right now? Yeah, that's why my cousin sold his. If I had been as shrewd as he, I would have also bought it $13.00 a share and made a bundle. :laugh2:

It's no worse really than Google, which doesn't even sell a tangible product. It amazes me that they can be so powerful, yet afford nothing substantial really. No hardware, not even industry standard software. Just a search engine, a browser and a mobile phone OS. Incredible.

They are quite a bit more then that. Google Mail, maps, adwords and other apps are being used by millions. They have a lot of great tools for small businesses to use. Being able to share and collaborate on version controlled word / excel equivalent documents with co workers and clients is very powerful and useful. Just cause they generate revenue with out charging for their applications doesnt mean they dont have tangible products, their map api is incredible.

 

[vta]

They are quite a bit more then that. Google Mail, maps, adwords and other apps are being used by millions. They have a lot of great tools for small businesses to use. Being able to share and collaborate on version controlled word / excel equivalent documents with co workers and clients is very powerful and useful. Just cause they generate revenue with out charging for their applications doesnt mean they dont have tangible products, their map api is incredible.

All good practical software, I'm sure, but when compared to powerhouses that provide industry standard products, it's really nothing short of amazing that it is as valuable as it is: Adobe is an industry standard, no part of the digital visual world moves forward without it. It's value is understandable. Microsoft an entire platform, Apple actual hardware and a platform, etc. all provide things businesses would be crippled without at this point.

Really, without these things Google is a dead fish and has no real value. Without Google, all those things still serve a purpose.

Same goes for Facebook. It's not publicly traded, but it's value is ridiculous. That is niche market if I'd ever seen it.

 

[YosemiteSam]

$14 billion in revenue and nearly $60 billion in assets for a niche market?

It has a higher P/E than Microsoft (20 vs. 12) because it's viewed as a growth stock. And given it's recent trends, that's logical.

Yes, niche. Apple only has 3.6% of the entire PC market share. iPod sales themselves will overall weaken being replaced by smartphones. Enter iPhone. It begin cannibalizing the generic iPod sales.

Apple has been a market sweetheart due to margins. Enter Android. Apple begins using cheaper hardware to increase margins due to the heavy competition from Android. Android now is outselling the iPhone. Not only is it outselling the iPhone, the iPhone sales are actually declining percentage wise while Android is booming.

As you can see here, Android is actually stealing market share from everyone.

You know what happens now right? More money gets spent on development to try and keep up with the incredibly rapid development of Android, more money spent on advertising, money spent on lawyers to start attacking competitors with law suits, money spent on lawyers due to getting law suits in return (1, 2, 3) a company starts doing "questionable things" to try and protect what it has, and then the goverment starts investigating for antitrust. Then we all know what happens. Margins size starts to slip due to declining sales and much higher spending, when margins slip, so does stock price.

If you want to hang on to that bloated stock, go right ahead.

 

[theogt]

Apple doesn't care about market share. They care about profit share. Google can gain market share, but isn't gaining profit share.

 

[Hoofbite]

I wonder how much of the dip in iPhone sales has to do with everyone in the world knowing that a new one is going to be announced in about 12 days.