Apple's iPhone Business is Now Larger Than All of Microsoft

[King_Jay16]

This won’t be a surprise to anyone who has been following the numbers but Apple‘s iPhone business alone is now larger than all of Microsoft. I’ll confess that while I was aware of the numbers I obviously wasn’t paying attention as this point hadn’t occurred to me. Parislemon makes it plain:

Apple’s iPhone business alone is larger than all of Microsoft’s businesses combined.

And as he goes on to point out, if you took the iPhone business out of Apple then what remains is still larger than all of Microsoft combined.

Now yes, this is a result of the stunning expansion of sales in this past year or two, even you need the rise in that last quarter’s sales to make the sums fully work.

But to someone like me who started paying attention to the computer industry around 1988, 89, this is a gross affront to the established worldview. Apple’s the plucky little upstart with a niche business and Microsoft is the globally encompassing near monopolist of the desktop.

Not that either of those were entirely and wholly true at any point but that has been, until just these last few years of iPods, iPhones and iPads, the general background to any story comparing the two firms.

So the world has changed since my youth then: possibly not the most perceptive observation anyone has ever made I agree.

One more thing: just to show that it’s not revenue that we are comparing here and thus it being some trick of the product mix which just makes Apple seem larger, the company also makes about twice the profits of Microsoft: in the last quarter, some $13 billion against $6.6 billion.

Back in the very early days of personal computing it was possible to think that this might come true: that Apple, making both hardware and operating systems would beat the highly fragmented world of the IBM compatible PC. Then for about 25, 30 years it wasn’t, in fact it was near inconceivable that Apple would ever in any way “beat” the Beast of Redmond and yet now they are.

But as I’ve remarked before, they’ve not done it by replacing Windows or Office, the things that tie the PC to Microsoft. They’ve done an end run around the end and edge of the whole PC technology. Which is also as I’ve said before. Monopolies tend to fall not when they are beaten in their own market but when their market becomes only a subset of a wider one, when advancing technology makes the monopolist’s position almost irrelevant.

hmmm... interesting


Forbes

[pezz]

Impressive stuff.

A company making that much money, I would think they would make much better products.

[crisis]

wow....all of microsoft....like wow

[King_Jay16]

wow....all of microsoft....like wow

same thing i said when i saw it

[hv_thugg]

Impressive stuff.

A company making that much money, I would think they would make much better products.

You think they making money off garbage? if so go sell some of yours and get some money as well. Umm i think they sell great products hence the greatness of the company and with that the wealth will flow......

[NOKIA 3650]

I would think they would make much better products.

Cultus said it best when he noted that they sell a good "user experience". The best product is really the one that fits your needs, so to each, his own.

[pezz]

You think they making money off garbage? if so go sell some of your and get some money as well. Umm i think they sell great products hence the greatest of the company and the wealth will flow......

How does the wealth benefit you?

When you make something and sell then I will.

Cultus said it best when he noted that they sell a good "user experience". The best product is really the one that fits your needs, so to each, his own.

Best for you and best fact are different.

[NOKIA 3650]

Best for you and best fact are different.

Explain... There is no Best (theoretical/ideal) as you put it. The phone you have will be "best for you because you spent time reading the reviews on the best specs and other user experiences, then you decided that that was the best phone you can afford. Any phone that you already have will be beaten by the SGS3 once released (that's where my money is being saved for), so that. The typical BB user may consider their BB the best simply because they can't do without BBM (which for them is worth more than a powerful Android device).

You can consider a Ferrari the best car, yet others will refute that claim stating that it doesn't even have trunk space to carry groceries, nor can it be driven on our Jamaican roads. In Jamaica, we don't have any good Android data pans, so its a case where yet again, folks who just want a basic phone to surf the web, stick with their BBs. I know you already know all this already, but there is still no "absolute best".


...if so, what criteria do you use?

[LeBoss]

Explain... There is no Best (theoretical/ideal) as you put it. The phone you have will be "best for you because you spent time reading the reviews on the best specs and other user experiences, then you decided that that was the best phone you can afford. Any phone that you already have will be beaten by the SGS3 once released (that's where my money is being saved for), so that. The typical BB user may consider their BB the best simply because they can't do without BBM (which for them is worth more than a powerful Android device).

You can consider a Ferrari the best car, yet others will refute that claim stating that it doesn't even have trunk space to carry groceries, nor can it be driven on our Jamaican roads. In Jamaica, we don't have any good Android data pans, so its a case where yet again, folks who just want a basic phone to surf the web, stick with their BBs. I know you already know all this already, but there is still no "absolute best".


...if so, what criteria do you use?

very well said, until the plans improve, we wont see an improvement in network fascilities

[jamaicakevkev]

Amazing but not surprising ... Never underestimate the power of a smooth practically flawless user experience. Kind of hard for your average windows user who has to deal with bad or missing drivers, anti virus programs, blue screens, cryptic error messages, and or referrals to system administrators, to understand.

Side not @leboss do you get 3G for your iPhone on Digicel? See many people running iPhones on Digicel and was wonder... WHY? What do I not know about Digicel?