The money made by Microsoft, Apple and Google, 1985 until today

[nukiduz]

I just come across this article and thought it would be interesting to discuss.

http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/04/09/the-money-made-by-microsoft-apple-and-google-1985-until-today/

While Microsoft and Google have the same profit percentage (27% from total revenues) Apple's is 17%. Maybe Apple products are not so overpriced? Maybe salaries are better? They spend more investigating?

 

[jpyc7]

I didn't read the article, but what is called COGS (cost of goods sold) is very low for software companies like Microsoft. This would be the CD or DVD shipped by MS (and its packaging). Google sells ad space which is apparently low COGS too. It does not mean R&D (research and development) investment is low. Apple sells larger physical items that require paying for supplies from Intel, touch screen manufacturers, etc.

Anyway, it isn't really a way to make a value judgment about whether Apple is more concerned with consumer unless you compare Apple to another computer hardware company. I don't think there are any good companies for comparison, because the R&D cost of OS development is borne by Apple and most other computer vendors sell MS Windows with their computers.

 

[ptsube]

I didn't read the article, but what is called COGS (cost of goods sold) is very low for software companies like Microsoft. This would be the CD or DVD shipped by MS (and its packaging). Google sells ad space which is apparently low COGS too. It does not mean R&D (research and development) investment is low. Apple sells larger physical items that require paying for supplies from Intel, touch screen manufacturers, etc.

Anyway, it isn't really a way to make a value judgment about whether Apple is more concerned with consumer unless you compare Apple to another computer hardware company. I don't think there are any good companies for comparison, because the R&D cost of OS development is borne by Apple and most other computer vendors sell MS Windows with their computers.

You kind of have a point, but it seems more like you are just trying to defend Apple for some reason. I don't understand why everyone has to defend everything about Apple. It's just weird. It's a computer company, not your best friend.

Very interesting article, though.

 

[rhett7660]

You kind of have a point, but it seems more like you are just trying to defend Apple for some reason. I don't understand why everyone has to defend everything about Apple. It's just weird. It's a computer company, not your best friend.

Very interesting article, though.

And way to keep the conversation going.... did you really need to inject? I am just saying. Why is everyone who says something positive about Apple is labeled a fanboy or they are protecting the sacred god of SJ....

 

[H00513R]

The most interesting numbers to me are Google's. Look at how much cash they've amassed in such a short time. The other is the revenue to profit for Apple. A lot lower than say MS.

 

[jpyc7]

You kind of have a point, but it seems more like you are just trying to defend Apple for some reason. I don't understand why everyone has to defend everything about Apple. It's just weird. It's a computer company, not your best friend.

Very interesting article, though.

If you mean my statement about the value judgment (and "inappropriateness" to do so via business"), what I was trying to convey was that "capitalists" would say something like that.

Anyway, I would rephrase as "If it is possible to place a RELATIVE value judgment on companies, then the measure of value should be applicable to SIMILAR companies." If we compared a seller of cars to a seller of fruit, it is very difficult to say who is less greedy, although we might know profit margins and absolute profit. In this contrived example, the car seller probably has a bigger absolute profit, but maybe a smaller relative profit. Now could you say who is greedier? Does it depend on whether the buyer is starving or sated?

I did skim over the article later, and the author basically picked 3 large companies of the technology world. One of the comments on the original article also makes the point that it might be better to compare Apple with Dell since they both sell computers. The article's comparison just didn't seem very useful, although it might be a good conversation starter.