Apple Topples Microsoft's Throne
 

Now here's some good freakin' news for a change:

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.

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It was only a matter of time.


"Zune hasn't gone anywhere, their tablet is dead, their phones are having trouble establishing a market position -- but consumers still use Office and Windows," said Kay.


Yeah, well not for much longer if they don't get their shit together.

two different beasts tho, one is business oriented OS and software, another is all about ipods, iphones, and ipads mostly. there are more people in the world who like shiny things.

now if only market share would follow, we can all have viruses and trojans on the Mac yoopeeee!

PC laptops are being hawked on TV for less than $300 bucks in some cases. $400 is common. They are all junk. MS is invested in disposable computers by proxy and the quality of their own product is on par.

That made Steve Jobs' day!

I hardly see how another rival company having a 1% market cap advantage is proof of 'Microsoft's dominance ending'.

Oh wait, it doesn't.

Actually, the shiny objects are just the tip of the iceberg. Apple is deeply invested in video / audio codec standards creation and many other things including content sales (iTunes & AppleTV). They've got royalties & patents & income on all kinds of stuff. MS has been playing catch-up for too long. But that's what happens when your business is built on stolen tech. :)

Time to short AAPL...

It would be a free-for-all like it was in the early stages of Windows when we had Netbus and Back Orifice. That would be fun. :)

Wired's article is even better:

Apple Passes Microsoft as World?s Largest Tech Company

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/ep...ft-660x264.png

What a long, strange trip it?s been.

Apple?s market capitalization officially passed Microsoft?s Wednesday afternoon, making the Cupertino company, for the first time, the largest technology company in the world.

With a market cap of $241.5 billion versus Microsoft?s $239.5 billion, Apple also became the second-largest company on the S&P 500, according to Standard & Poor?s analyst Howard Silverblatt. At the moment, only Exxon Mobil is bigger.

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Yeah he's having a bang-up month isn't he? He completely pimp-slapped Adobe, dissed the porn industry, and now is sitting on top of all the gold in his Jesus robes. :thumbsup

Apple builds its toys in china, MS as far as I know develops it's software inland. of course we can argue that Apple also builds software here, but Apple only got their marketcap advantage because of shiny things built in China + itunes.

Even so, look at what a turn around this is in just 10 years between these two companies. While we may only be talking about a market cap advantage today..... where will they be in a few more years?

who knows AMP, i'm sure in few years school students all be doing their homeworks on tablets..possibilities are endless as usual, so there's plenty of business for both of them yet to be done and beat each other. In a long term what matters how will these companies function when their founders will step down.

Cheers to Apple! :drinkup

Been with them since my first Quadra 950. :thumbsup

Once jobs croaks apple is fucked.

too bad he's got cancer and will die in a couple years

Doesn't matter, Google will be much larger than both soon enough. In just a year and a half since Android, Google-powered phones are now outselling Apple-powered phones.

Apple always seemed to be wanted more than Microsoft on the "creative side".

Nobody in the music industry knew WTF Windows was, everybody used Apple back
in the day.

MS captured the mass market of "regular consumers" but was never ahead of Apple
in the trenches of the creative industries.

They run different businesses, so Apple is not really the main threat to Microsoft. Maybe image wise they are, but not as far as business is concerned. Microsoft would like some of Apple's device market, but they are fine without it.

Same with Apple, their big threat is from other phone and tablet makers, android, etc,. Not Microsoft.

The company most at risk here is Google, trust me.

Yes, and I'm enjoying the resurgence of that recently. The trend I've noticed here is, as friends and other people I know are more willing to switch because they're tired of the MS headaches they put up with all day at work, but then discover how great Macs are for being creative in all areas. This is what really turns them into believers, combined with not having to constantly fight with their system to do anything. I know we're all rocket scientists here on GFY, but around here in the real world, people just want the shit to work.... lol, they don't want to know why.

Add to that the reach-down ball-crushing-grip Apple has on the digital content (music / movies) and the codecs used for them, the items in everyone's hands... pods, pads, & phones... and of course the fact that everything Jobs touches turns to pure gold. (i.e. Pixar)... MS should be ashamed of themselves. They have been out-classed, out-smarted and out-done in every way.

There really needs to be a sequel to "Pirates Of Silicon Valley".... and I can't wait for it. :)

They are both in the business of cutting edge technology and the fight for the technological future. It's much more than image. MS is losing.

I would somewhat disagree. Apple didn't invent the MP3 player, not by several years. Apple didn't invent the smartphone, not by years.

Same with Microsoft, they didn't invent much of what they consider their bread and butter.

What these companies do well, is fight for MARKETSHARE and then never give it up. Microsoft is very good at locking people into their products and making it almost impossible to give them up.

Look at iTunes, there is nothing cutting edge about that. It was simply a ploy to lock people into their product. And it was a good one. Kudos to Apple

Being first rarely results in being the leader. Google didn't invent PPC, but they are the leader. Tivo invented the DVR, but they are bankrupt. There are countless examples like this.

The fight is between who can capture marketshare and keep a vice like grip on it no matter what the competition comes up with will be the winner.

Just to be clear, I like both companies. I think they are amazing examples of American entrepreneurial spirit and what this country is best at.

what i find most funny about apple is their save the planet stance, we are the world, lets hold hands and fight the power and at the same time, 20 of their 'employees' have commited suicide at the plant in china...this included all the fuck bois, where's the outage.


for the record i own a mb, iphone, and a few other apple products. i don't pretend i care about the world or anyone that's not family. :drinkup

Bill Gates worth $50 billion
Steve Jobs worth $5 billion

Gates for the win.

To be honest I think 99% of the "Save the world" crap we see out of product corps is pure bs and marketing. Including Apple.

That's a whole lot of latte sippin skinny jeans wearin homos buying pretty white computers.

I loved the ipod in its day, but it sits in a drawer now, because my phone does everything I need to do, including play my mp3s -- and I get my mp3's from Amazon because I don't need that stupid apple drm on my shit.

Good for Apple :-) Competition is always good for the consumer.

true that:2 cents::2 cents::2 cents:

Microsofts throne
 

Within 10 years Google will be so big Apple and Microsoft will have to merge to compete. Google Vs MicroApp... :BangBang:

sure is looking like that. Google is everywhere!

what does that have to do with anything? android os phones are on just about every carrier, the iphone is on one. Correlation doesnt equal causation

Go google!

Another suicide today at Foxconn

It says they installed safety nets and made employees sign letters to agree not to harm themselves.

Fucking great, can't wait for the Bill Gate's charity fund raiser:thumbsup:thumbsup

kind of, they do import A LOT of workers from third world countries