Apple overtakes Microsoft...

[Uncle Ted]

as most valuable tech company.

Apple Inc shot past Microsoft Corp as the world's biggest tech company as measured by market value on Wednesday, the latest milestone in the resurgence of the maker of the iPhone, which nearly went out of business in the 1990s.

Apple's shares rose 1 percent on Nasdaq on Wednesday, pushing its market value up to $225.1 billion and ahead of Microsoft's $222.7 billion, according to Reuters data. Apple shares were up 1 percent above $247 in late afternoon trading. Microsoft shares were down 2.2 percent to $25.50.

Shares of Apple are worth more than 10 times what they were 10 years ago, as it has profited from revolutionizing consumer electronics with its stylish, easy to use products such as the iPod, iPhone and MacBook laptops.

Microsoft, whose operating system runs on more than 90 percent of the world's PCs, has not been able to match growth rates of previous years. Its stock is down about 18 percent from 10 years ago.

Apple, which struggled for many years to get its products into the mainstream, resorted to a $150 million investment from the much larger Microsoft in 1997 in order to keep it afloat.

Cupertino, California-based Apple is now the second-largest company on the S&P 500 index by market value, behind energy behemoth Exxon Mobil Corp.

[Moliere]

as most valuable tech company.

Cool, I guess. I'm a recent Apple convert. I love their products and realize they cost more but I'm willing to pay for it. I'm especially happy with my iMac. I more happy that my wife can use the iMac without calling me constantly asking me why some program isn't working.

[beefytee]

I don't think Google will catch them, but I think Google will take a serious bite out of the market with their free android OS. Obviously they won't make any money on it directly, but it will eat into apples profits.

The phone market is already filling up with Android and I hear Dell is going to release a tablet with android to compete with the iPad.

Like the original PC war, I think the platform with the fewest constraints will win.

The only real corner on a market that Apple has is the iPod.

I don't think apples rule will last...At least not near as long as Microsoft's has.

[Uncle Ted]

Microsoft's new "Apple Store" knock-offs get a slow start...

Apple store vs Microsoft store on Black Friday

Philip Elmer-Dewitt pointed out an interesting "survey" conducted by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster this past Black Friday that compared sales at the Apple store in the Mall of America to sales of the Microsoft store directly across the hall. Given the wild popularity of Apple products, the following stats might not surprise many people:

* The Microsoft store had 47 percent less foot-traffic than the Apple store.

* Shoppers bought 17.2 items per hour at the Apple store versus 3.5 items per hour at the Microsoft store -- with all but two of the MS purchased being Xbox games.

* Shoppers at the Apple store bought an average of 11 iPads per hour versus zero Surface tablets per hour at the Microsoft store.
[...]

Apparently sales of the Surface are so bad that microsoft paid Oprah to plug them on her twitter account, which she did from her iPad...

[Mormon Red Death]

Another great "what if" similar to Coke having an opportunity to buy pepsi

From Apple's 2003 10-K stock filing:

In August 1997, the Company [Apple] and Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft) entered into patent cross license and technology agreements. In addition, Microsoft purchased 150,000 shares of Apple Series A nonvoting convertible preferred stock ("preferred stock") for $150 million. These shares were convertible by Microsoft after August 5, 2000, into shares of the Company's common stock at a conversion price of $8.25 per share. During 2000, 74,250 shares of preferred stock were converted to 9 million shares of the Company's common stock. During 2001, the remaining 75,750 preferred shares were converted into 9.2 million shares of the Company's common stock.

Microsoft sold their shares in 2001.