The following chart from New York Times details on the rivalry of Apple and Microsoft in terms of market cap.
Apple recently grabbed the top spot as the "world’s most valuable technology company"...
Interesting comment by the New York Times:
"The rapidly rising value attached to Apple by investors also heralds an important cultural shift: Consumer tastes have overtaken the needs of business as the leading force shaping technology."
This reminds us that consumers ALWAYS play the lead role in determining how resources are allocated. And businesses only compete to satisfy consumer needs or tastes, through innovation or adaption of more efficient processes. Profits and higher market cap are consequences of the success of such pursuit. According to Ludwig von Mises,
``The economic foundation of this bourgeois system is the market economy in which the consumer is sovereign. The consumer, i.e., everybody, determines by his buying or abstention from buying what should be produced, in what quantity and of what quality. The businessmen are forced by the instrumentality of profit and loss to obey the orders of the consumers, Only those enterprises can flourish that supply in the best possible and cheapest way those commodities and services which the buyers are most anxious to acquire. Those who fail to satisfy the public suffer losses and are finally forced to go out of business."
Go to the New York Times site here to see the company milestones accompanying the chart.
However, maybe the rivalry shouldn't be limited to Apple-Microsoft. Perhaps newcomer Google should be part of it.
Google's market cap is currently at $156 billion according to yahoo finance, (chart from bigcharts.com) more than 30% off from Apple's $233.7 billion.
But again, the rewards will depend on who among these companies will satisfy the consumers most.
Apple recently grabbed the top spot as the "world’s most valuable technology company"...
Interesting comment by the New York Times:"The rapidly rising value attached to Apple by investors also heralds an important cultural shift: Consumer tastes have overtaken the needs of business as the leading force shaping technology."
This reminds us that consumers ALWAYS play the lead role in determining how resources are allocated. And businesses only compete to satisfy consumer needs or tastes, through innovation or adaption of more efficient processes. Profits and higher market cap are consequences of the success of such pursuit. According to Ludwig von Mises,
``The economic foundation of this bourgeois system is the market economy in which the consumer is sovereign. The consumer, i.e., everybody, determines by his buying or abstention from buying what should be produced, in what quantity and of what quality. The businessmen are forced by the instrumentality of profit and loss to obey the orders of the consumers, Only those enterprises can flourish that supply in the best possible and cheapest way those commodities and services which the buyers are most anxious to acquire. Those who fail to satisfy the public suffer losses and are finally forced to go out of business."
Go to the New York Times site here to see the company milestones accompanying the chart.
However, maybe the rivalry shouldn't be limited to Apple-Microsoft. Perhaps newcomer Google should be part of it.
Google's market cap is currently at $156 billion according to yahoo finance, (chart from bigcharts.com) more than 30% off from Apple's $233.7 billion. But again, the rewards will depend on who among these companies will satisfy the consumers most.
