Apple Passes Microsoft as Largest Tech Company

[Marcus Yam]

The little fruit company has climbed high.

Apple Passes Microsoft as Largest Tech Company : Read more

 

[proxy711]

I have to do this, sorry.

Just think if Microsoft had the apple tax on all their products. Microsoft would be able to buy 2 Exxon Mobil sized companies then. =P

 

[killerclick]

Just another sign of the demise of our civilization.

 

[joytech22]

ZOMG APPLE BECOMING A MONOPOLY ZOMGWTFBBQ!

Soon they will be unstoppable! suing company's left right and center, claiming all technology is theirs!

Wait that's happening now!

 

[7amood]

LET TEH INNOVATION COMPETITION BEGIN!!
it's time to wake up msft... and other companies...

 

[baddad]

It's not their computers but their Iphone, and Ipods that are making the money, where with MS it's mostly their software.

 

[digiex]

Not so long ago, Bill Gates lent a helping hand to Steve Jobs.

Good work Jobs, Sorry Balmer, you suck bigtime.

 

[d-block]

I didn't realize that Apple was doing that well.

 

[bonezy]

[citation][nom]Zingam[/nom]You couldn't be more wrong! There is M$ Tax for ages and it's made Bill Gates the richest person on Earth for a reason.M$ Windows should not cost more than $50-100 for a full version. Windows and Office are hugely overpriced. Other companies and the open software community deliver products of similar qualities for much lower prices or for free.And I'm neither Apple user nor Linux one.M$ products are overpriced and crap but they have a real monopoly unlike Apple with their 7% market share.Also Apple's users are happy M$ users have never been. There isn't a more hated person on Earth than Bill Gates. He has affected negatively more busynesses and people on Earth than Genghis Khan and Hitler...[/citation]

First off, you're spouting rhetoric that's more than a decade old; How is Bill Gates the most hated person? He's more of a philanthropist than you'll ever be.

And secondly, you're saying Microsoft is overpriced, but then you state that Apple has a 7% market share... and but according to the article, they are worth more than Microsoft.

Hmm, 7% market share yet wealthiest tech company, and not overpriced? Your logic is flawed.

 

[Guest]

Here I were, thinking the article heading had to do with something... uh, tangible?

Oh well, moving on.

 

[irh_1974]

[citation][nom]Zingam[/nom]You couldn't be more wrong! There is M$ Tax for ages and it's made Bill Gates the richest person on Earth for a reason.M$ Windows should not cost more than $50-100 for a full version. Windows and Office are hugely overpriced. Other companies and the open software community deliver products of similar qualities for much lower prices or for free.And I'm neither Apple user nor Linux one.M$ products are overpriced and crap but they have a real monopoly unlike Apple with their 7% market share.Also Apple's users are happy M$ users have never been. There isn't a more hated person on Earth than Bill Gates. He has affected negatively more busynesses and people on Earth than Genghis Khan and Hitler...[/citation]
Wow, you are one deluded puppy
Windows allows you to install pretty much any software from anyone
Windows places no restriction on whose hardware is used to be installed on
Whereas...
Apple places strict controls on what you can have and by who
Apple forces you to use its hardware
Then...
You compare Gates to Genghis Khan or Hitler
Despite Gates being the single largest contributor to charitable causes in the history of the world, more than the rest of the next 100 richest people in the world combined
Then Steve Jobs who doesn't have a charitable bone in his body and would happily have the furnaces powered by burning kittens

I'm sure comparing Gates to Hitler will play nicely with the anti-semetic lunatic fringe but everyone else just thinks you are a sick individual

 

[micky_lund]

[citation][nom]proxy711[/nom]I have to do this, sorry.Just think if Microsoft had the apple tax on all their products. Microsoft would be able to buy 2 Exxon Mobil sized companies then. =P[/citation]
what are you sorry for?

 

[ohim]

I know i`m offtopic here but why the hell is everybody saying that Bill Gates is/was the richest man on earth, when everything in US and most of the world is controlled by Rockefeller familly ?

 

[gralex]

I can't see this lasting very long. Maybe a few years...

I haven't used a standalone Mp3 player in years, so that takes care of iPods. iPhones look like they are gonna have one last Summer of good sales. The iPad sucks. And Apple gave up making serious computers almost 5 years ago. God forbid Jobs has a stroke or something...

 

[anamaniac]

What Macintosh has done is amazing. Howver, they simply do not offer a product that fits me. I want a 5870m/GTX470m, quad core, 2-3 HDD's, under $2,000.
When Macintosh does that, I may consider another look. Otherwise, for now, though while slimmer, and better battery life than most, I find them ugly and overpriced without having the hardware I crave.
[citation][nom]digiex[/nom]Not so long ago, Bill Gates lent a helping hand to Steve Jobs.Good work Jobs, Sorry Balmer, you suck bigtime.[/citation]
I miss Bill. Screw Ballmer.
[citation][nom]ohim[/nom]I know i`m offtopic here but why the hell is everybody saying that Bill Gates is/was the richest man on earth, when everything in US and most of the world is controlled by Rockefeller familly ?[/citation]
I prefer not to think about that, even though I'm Canadian...

 

[boobot]

Largest tech company per market capitalizaion. HP is the largest tech company.

 

[Regulas]

[citation][nom]Zingam[/nom]You couldn't be more wrong! There is M$ Tax for ages and it's made Bill Gates the richest person on Earth for a reason.M$ Windows should not cost more than $50-100 for a full version. Windows and Office are hugely overpriced. Other companies and the open software community deliver products of similar qualities for much lower prices or for free.And I'm neither Apple user nor Linux one.M$ products are overpriced and crap but they have a real monopoly unlike Apple with their 7% market share.Also Apple's users are happy M$ users have never been. There isn't a more hated person on Earth than Bill Gates. He has affected negatively more busynesses and people on Earth than Genghis Khan and Hitler...[/citation]
You are right but the fanboys don't care about truth just like the Democrat party does not care about truth.

 

[Regulas]

[citation][nom]proxy711[/nom]I have to do this, sorry.Just think if Microsoft had the apple tax on all their products. Microsoft would be able to buy 2 Exxon Mobil sized companies then. =P[/citation]
Idiot their has been MS taxes in place for decades and the number one tax is buy a new computer (save for Apple and a small Linux company or 2) you have to pay for their OS. Go ask Dell for a PC without an OS.

 

[xantek24]

bill gates + steve balmer = ike & patton

steve jobs is hitler. corrected.

 

[Hydrocron]

http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-949671.html


I'm sure Dell would be happy to sell you one without Windows.

 

[prelude2250]

Thats how its always been. Apple is like the new religion. its all based on misconceptions and the ignorant flock to it because others told them to. I'd rather not pay twice as much for technology twice as old just because its "pretty".

 

[joebob2000]

So explain how a company that sells music players and the occasional computer can have a market cap beyond the company that puts the OS onto over 90% of the computers in the world? This has been beaten to death, but let me just recap the two valid points: AAPL doesn't pay dividends and trades at 20x earnings, meaning the alleged stock value is twenty times what the company earns. Inflated? You decide. MSFT pays dividends of around 2% a year, *and* they trade at 13x earnings.

In summary: buy apple if you want to ride the stock up and hope some other sucker will come along some day to buy it from you for more than you paid. Buy microsoft if you want stable investment in a company that is a serious international player.

disclaimer: I don't directly own either AAPL or MSFT.

 

[amstech]

Apple make products for people who don't really understand computers, (but like to think they do) and Ipods are easier to use then things like a Zune.

For us enthusiasts that want freedom to install what we want, overclock, change components and rip things apart, we stay away from Apple.

 

[backin5]

It has pretty much become a sport to bash Apple here on Tom's Hardware, but here's something to think about for all those of you who are wasting their energy doing that:

I would assume that most of Tom's readers use PCs not Macs, many of whom use Windows (not necessarily by choice - Linux, like Macs, doesn't have that many gaming options, and drivers is still a common problem) and build their own PC.

Microsoft, having a monopoly with Windows, is screwing those of us who build their own PC (and there are many good reasons to build your own PC) by forcing us to buy the expansive retail version, claiming that the cheaper OEM version is only for resale and must only be sold with an already built computer.

I know that as a PC user this bothers me much more than what Apple does (as much as I dislike Apple's business approach).

 

[babybeluga]

Regulas, did you just compare people who use windows to the Democratic party? Are you that jaded? For years, Apple has been the one that is linked to coffee shop liberal elitists. You take any opportunity to berate the democrats on a tech site; you are a crotchety old man who needs to get a life and a brain.

And guess what, if you take the hardware in those Dell computers and add up the costs, it comes out where the Microsoft OS costs anywhere from $10 - $50 usually. If you take, say, a Macbook and total its hardware costs, you're pretty much paying $100 - $300 for the operating system.