Apple narrowly eclipses Microsoft to regain status as most valuable company in US

After a brisk day of trading, Apple regained its spot as the U.S.'s most valuable company by market value, hitting a cap of $914.86 billion at close.

The company beat out Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet, the only three companies within striking distance according to NASDAQ rankings. Microsoft was formerly the frontrunner, having surpassed Apple in November.

Microsoft closed Tuesday at $914.45 billion in market capitalization.

The reason for Apple's resurgence in the short-term isn't clear, given analyst reaction to the "its show time" Apple News event, but analysts and investors appear to be regaining confidence in the wake of a disastrous December quarter which saw iPhone sales tumble 15 percent year-over-year. The company saw its worst performance in China, battered by a combination of lower-cost local phone brands, a weak economy, and its decision to once again hike entry-level iPhone prices, exacerbated by exchange rates.

It has since adopted more aggressive sales tactics to compensate, cutting prices in some countries and extending extra trade-in credit.

Some analysts are pinning their hopes on Apple's growing services business, which includes divisions like Apple Music, the App Store, and its upcoming Apple TV+ video service, coupled with the now-available Apple News+.

While the services themselves may add a modest boost to profits, the real benefit is expected to be keeping people locked into the Apple ecosystem. People may be less likely to switch to Android, Windows, or Chrome OS if they're invested in Apple services, even if its March 25 products are available on outside platforms.

Apple will reveal its quarterly results on April 30.

20 Comments

lkrupp 10521 comments · 19 Years

About 5 years ago

But, but, but... the iPhone is dead. So is the iPad and the Mac. Nobody buys ‘em anymore. And services are an abject failure even before they launch. Just do your research in the comment sections of Apple tech blogs and you’ll see. It’s unanimous. Apple is done for, kaput. /s

harrykatsaros 90 comments · 8 Years

delete comment.

Johan42 163 comments · 6 Years

harrykatsaros said:

Hate the way that market cap is determined. All on conjecture and futures. The idea that MS is more valuable than Apple is preposterous. Apple earns more in a quarter than Microsoft does in a year.

And the majority of Apple’s revenue/profit comes from iPhone. Once sales on that start to slow down, Apple will be “less valuable” than Microsoft again, while Microsoft keeps on staying diverse with its products.

rob53 3307 comments · 13 Years

Johan42 said:

harrykatsaros said:

Hate the way that market cap is determined. All on conjecture and futures. The idea that MS is more valuable than Apple is preposterous. Apple earns more in a quarter than Microsoft does in a year.

And the majority of Apple’s revenue/profit comes from iPhone. Once sales on that start to slow down, Apple will be “less valuable” than Microsoft again, while Microsoft keeps on staying diverse with its products.

Diverse products? They get all their money from software and client licenses. Very minimal product line.

StrangeDays 12964 comments · 8 Years

Johan42 said:

harrykatsaros said:

Hate the way that market cap is determined. All on conjecture and futures. The idea that MS is more valuable than Apple is preposterous. Apple earns more in a quarter than Microsoft does in a year.

And the majority of Apple’s revenue/profit comes from iPhone. Once sales on that start to slow down, Apple will be “less valuable” than Microsoft again, while Microsoft keeps on staying diverse with its products.

Yeah no. While iPhone is Apple's largest revenue source (biggest for anyone in history), they still have other lines with tremendous income; some of their other products do more than other entire corporations. Curious that you don't give Apple credit for these diverse lines of revenue, but do give it to MS. MS did $30.1 billion total revenue in Q4 2018. That same quarter, Apple did $10B in services alone -- little old services, did one-third as much as all of MS entirely for the same quarter. Likewise, iPad+Mac did $12B -- almost half of MS's total for the same quarter. Together that's $22B already. Etc etc...

It's clear -- Apple is completely healthy, and anybody who claims MS is more healthy due to their non-dependency on iPhone (conveniently ignoring Windows and Office) is a fool.