Apple surpasses Microsoft in market capitalization value

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Jos

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Apple has surpassed Microsoft to become the second-largest U.S. company by market capitalization for the first time, although second-by-second fluctuations still saw the two swapping positions this morning. The fact that Apple has reached this level of valuation represents a remarkable turn of events in the companies' history.

About a decade ago, when Steve Ballmer took over as CEO of Microsoft and Steve Jobs had recently reclaimed the helm at Apple, the latter had a market capitalization of 'only' $16 billion compared to Microsoft's $556 billion. Following its peak in December 1999, Microsoft's stock price has significantly declined before settling into tread-water mode. Apple on the other hand has been growing rapidly after a string of successful launches that started with the iMac, then the industry-revolutionizing iPod, and most recently the iPhone and iPad.

Shares of Apple on the Nasdaq stock exchange are, just this second, valued at $226 billion and climbing while Microsoft now stands at around $222 billion. Market capitalization is a popular metric for assessing the size of a company and its worth. The figure is derived by multiplying the number of outstanding shares of the company's stock by the share price. In the case of Apple, that's slightly over 900 million shares at nearly $250 each.

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Wow, that's incredible considering what AAPL was like 10-20 years ago... Maybe it's time to pass on some of those profits to consumers or the guys at the Foxconn factories eh? From their latest statements the average employee salary is almost $400k... and people think bankers get paid too much.
 
Makes since. Every other M$ OS release is craptastic therefore doesn't bring as much money. Also, pirating is constantly increasing and with the prices M$ charges, people find other ways of getting their software....therefor they don't get as much money.

Apple evens out with charging an arm and a leg for their computers and laptops. They also bring in a good bit by expanding to the phone, media player and now tablet area.
True, M$ has a phone OS and have a media player, but they aren't as well known.....or even advertised very well (I don't think i've ever seen a commercial for the Zune or a Windows OS phone).
 
You saying you never saw a Zune commercial or Windows mobile for phone is a point microsoft should take to heart. There advertising campaigns for both have been terrible. So its not surprise Apple is coming out ahead with there products when it comes to sales.

when you get down to it Microsoft is not more complicated than Apple as Apple is no more complicated to Microsoft.
 
10 workers aged 18 to 24 have committed suicide at the Foxconn factory that produces parts for the iPhone and iPad.

""They feel a sense of pressure - pressure to make more money, pressure to work harder, pressure from family or difficulties in personal relationships," says Geoffrey Crothall, an editor for the China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong–based workers rights' group.

Does purchasing products that are made under such conditions both our conscious? People love cheap things and corporations such as Apple and Microsoft will use these factories to make their products.

The Apple logo and any other corporation that use slave labor should have blood dripping down.
 
You saying you never saw a Zune commercial or Windows mobile for phone is a point microsoft should take to heart. There advertising campaigns for both have been terrible. So its not surprise Apple is coming out ahead with there products when it comes to sales.

when you get down to it Microsoft is not more complicated than Apple as Apple is no more complicated to Microsoft.

I actually have seen commercials for them, but compared to Apple commercials, the commercials for the two I mentioned are very scarce (I saw a few when they were first released, but they quickly died down). The only M$ commercials I see a lot of are Win7 commercials......and i've just realized that i've never seen a commercial for M$ Office...do they even exist? lol
 
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