'"The reason Apple has been able to do so well is that it produces products that consumers want," Kaufman Brothers analyst Shaw Wu said. "That's something that's very difficult and, frankly, something a lot of companies struggle with."'
Google has a higher profit margin, it should be noted. So yeah, Apple has issued more stock, and by stock prices it is more "valuable". I'd still rather own Google than Apple, if I were given a choice.
When the entire stock market was on sale during the worst of the recession and crash, I considered buying both AAPL and GOOG. I bought a few shares of GOOG, and opted not to buy AAPL, at all. I have ethical issues with AAPL, as well, so that probably also had an impact on my decision. I would have done very well on AAPL, but I've done well on GOOG, as well. Looks like AAPL might have been a slightly better investment...but I'd have to do math to be sure. And, I agree with you and think that GOOG will come out on top in the end.
Really? From April 2005 to April 2010, AAPL appreciated by 583% whereas GOOG went up by only 219%. AAPL has multiple winners and personally, I would own AAPL vs GOOG.
Obviously the argument about if Apple's growth is sustainable or not also hinges on something troublesome about its history: the presence or absence of Steve Jobs. Will you invest in a company that is so much personified in an individual who will definitely leave someday?
Apple is less than $50 billion ( < 20%) behind Microsoft in total valuation. If you compare the P/E ratio of Apple & Microsoft then you can see there is some expectation that Apple could overtake Microsoft in market cap sometime comparatively soon.
Who'd have predicted that in 2000? Or even 2005?
(Speaking of historical predictions, who would have predicated that Microsoft, Apple and Google would all be bigger than IBM in market cap?)
I suspect Apple will do a watch or in-car device. Both are ubiquitous electronic personal devices not yet Apple'fied. For it to occur, it depends on some new technology to come along that Apple can integrate into them better than others.
-- I think a watch will happen when rfid or other eps devices replace cash
All I can think of right now is this: "Short Apple, buy Google"
Building products is HARD, even when you have a completely dedicated fanbase. Fixed costs per unit are just too high. Physical store presence is needed. Things come back on warranty. Support costs are high.
The difference is that not only does Google have none of those drawbacks, but their product actually becomes more valuable as more people use it (more statistical significance on predictions and tests, finer grained advertising offerins, etc). So, in other words, their sources of revenue get more value out of Google even if they are only targeting the same raw number of people, because it will better optimized.
Also, Google's per user costs are so low and the scalability of any software they design or buyout is so high that they have a much, much higher chance of ten folding their earnings in the next two years than Apple does. And at the end of the day, I don't look past two years when investing.
Sounds familiar.