New King of Technology: Apple Overtakes Microsoft

[tommywho70x]

NYT

New King of Technology: Apple Overtakes Microsoft
By MIGUEL HELFT and ASHLEE VANCE
Published: May 26, 2010


SAN FRANCISCO — Apple, the maker of iPods, iPhones and iPads, overtook Microsoft, the computer software giant, on Wednesday to become the world’s most valuable technology company.
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Jim Wilson/The New York Times



In intraday trading shortly after 2:30 p.m., Apple shares rose 1.8 percent, which gave the company a value of $227.1 billion. Shares of Microsoft declined about 1 percent, giving the company a market capitalization of $226.3 billion.

The only American company valued higher is Exxon Mobil, with a market capitalization of $282 billion.

This changing of the guard caps one of the most stunning turnarounds in business history, as Apple had been given up for dead only a decade earlier. But the rapidly rising value attached to Apple by investors also heralds a cultural shift: Consumer tastes have overtaken the needs of business as the leading force shaping technology.

Microsoft, with its Windows and Office software franchises, has dominated the relationship most people had with their computers for almost two decades and that was reflected in its stock market capitalization. But the click-clack of the keyboard has ceded ground to the swoosh of a finger across a smartphone’s touch-screen.

“It is the single most important turnaround that I have seen in Silicon Valley,” said Jim Breyer, a venture capitalist who has invested in some of the most successful technology companies.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Microsoft makes the worst fucking software on the planet. I've been on PC's since they were invented and there's been no progress, it's still DOS with the Mac display.

My sons have Macbooks and my wife and I have decided that next upgrade we're making planters out of the PC's and getting Macs.

 

[tommywho70x]

go look at the history, frank.

the "mac display" you refer to, more commonly known as the GUI, was first developed by XEROX at their Palo Alto Research Center.

apple stole it before microsoft did.

also,believe it or not, those PC's can run other software besides Microsoft's.

 

[FA_Q2]

PC > MAC. easily. Now apples real power is not in computers but in gadgets. That is where they command the power. Unfortunately, I will not purchase an apple product until they lose their proprietary practices. Apple act as though they own the products you purchase and that drives me nuts.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

go look at the history, frank.

the "mac display" you refer to, more commonly known as the GUI, was first developed by XEROX at their Palo Alto Research Center.

apple stole it before microsoft did.

also,believe it or not, those PC's can run other software besides Microsoft's.

I remember Wysiwyg, I remember doing "word processing" on Lanier machines but I forgot that Apple did borrow the GUI. Good point.

In any event Mac is lightyears ahead of Msft is any and all common computer applications. I took 1,100 pictures on my recent trip and I hooked the camera up to my sons Mac and it downloaded them all in about 3 minutes.

It took my PC (Windows XP) twice that long just to figure out what software I had to download just to talk to the camera.

I have a Blackberry and I still can't figure out hot to dl my address book from the computer to the Blackberry, could MSFT make it any more complicated if they tried and the irony is I use Outlook as my Contact and Calendar! Why make it so difficult to share over a common platform?

Fuck Microsoft, I'm done after the next upgrade.