Apple is now worth more than $500 billion.*
Or… almost twice as much as Microsoft ($256 billion)
Or… over sixteen times as much as Dell ($31 Billion)
* They have been the most valuable co in the world for some time now.
Tag Archives: ipad 3
Amazon’s P/E ratio and business strategy.
Two days ago, I started this post:
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As I mentioned before, Amazon’s business strategy looks like cheating:
- Sell product for a loss
- Sell a lot of that product
- ???
- Profit
Amazon lost money for many years.
Their most recent financials show them making 3% profit.
That is not very much.
By comparison, Apple makes ~25% profit (though Apple is on the high side of the spectrum).
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…then, just today, this report came out:
Perhaps I was on to something.
Here’s the thing about Apple’s “recent” success.
It isn’t recent.
The only thing that has changed are some numbers. Some big numbers: largest company in the world, second most profitable company in the world, most profitable retail stores in the world, best-selling smart phone, second best-selling smart phone, best-selling tablet computer, etc.
Other numbers have not changed: customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, consumer ratings, etc.
So now we have some new numbers which make it easy to say “Apple is better.” But Apple has not changed. Apple is operating from the same principles, discipline, vision, and methods that they have always (with Steve and team) been operating from. What people who understand have been saying is no more true now than it was ten years ago: Apple is better. Not in trivial, transient ways. Not in the “My beliefs are right, yours are wrong” sense. Apple is doing, and has been doing, things much differently than any company—in any industry—for at least the past ten years. Apple’s products and operations are vastly superior. Many people have recognized this all along. Some people will never recognize it.
It’s just that now all the numbers confirm it.
Stumble It! Why can’t anyone replicate Apple’s success?
Why can’t anyone replicate Apple’s success?
Everyone is trying. From yogurt makers to car makers to internet search companies, everyone tries to copy Apple’s products, or design philosophy, or retail strategy, or marketing, or chase Apple into an industry that Apple created.
But none of the copying transforms any of the companies that try.
Why not? It is an interesting question.
I offer two answers:
1) Everyone is chasing Apple. You cannot overtake anyone when you are trying to keep chasing them. Still, I would think that the chasing would have the ol’ “Hitch-your-wagon-to-a-star” effect; I would think that at least some of the companies would find themselves transformed into very profitable companies. But that does not happen. Except for Microsoft in the 1990s. But it hasn’t worked for them since them… Microsoft’s market capitalization in 1999: 500 billion; Microsoft’s market cap today: 200 billion. Still very large. But 2 1/2 times smaller than it was.
2) Everyone is trying to copy the external, peripheral factors in Apple’s success. Why isn’t anyone (a company or individual) copying Apple’s focused vision? Organizations and companies spend a lot of money and time and energy on gathering data, buying data, reading data, training, fads, etc. But, I submit, you could spend that money and time (or less) on learning about, growing, sharpening your vision–as a person or a company.
Vision trumps all. That’s the explanation for Apple’s success. You likely already have a vision. Go with it. If you don’t, knock yourself out finding and focusing your vision. Anything else is just a game. An unprofitable, unsustainable game.
