Apple made it to a $1 trillion valuation last week, beating out Amazon and making a whole bunch of people really mad about it.
Writing for USA Today, Jefferson Graham says “Apple can thank iPhone a trillion times, but it has Amazon to worry about.” (Tip o’ the antlers to Peter.)
Apple crossed the magic line on Wall Street on Thursday to become the first U.S. company worth $1 trillion.
That’s an interesting milestone for a company thought to be coasting on ideas left over by the late Steve Jobs, a firm that hadn’t innovated in years.
iPhone X? Nah. AirPods? Pshaw. One certainly can’t count the Apple Watch which has quietly become a huge success after being declared a flop. It was already declared a flop! You can’t turn it into a success! What’s that all about?! Revisionist history, that’s what that is!
But one great idea – the iPhone – is the gift that just keeps on giving, selling more than 200 million units yearly. And even with a price hike in 2017 to $1,000 and up, people were still willing to fork over 10 Ben Franklins for the iPhone X, the most expensive iPhone ever.
If one knew nothing about iPhone pricing and read that paragraph, one would be excused for thinking that iPhone pricing starts at $1,000 instead of $349.
Sales of Macintosh computers are declining, the best days for the iPad are behind it…
The iPad hasn’t climbed out of the hole it fell into yet, but sales have been up year-over-year for each of the last five quarters.
Now the question for Apple is, post-$1 trillion, can it get to $2 trillion?
The thinking on Wall Street is no.
These would be the same analyst who thought Amazon would get to $1 trillion first. The Macalope has consistently said the $1 trillion capitalization mark doesn’t mean that much. Round numbers are appealing to the mind but it’s not like Apple was somehow less successful at a market capitalization of $999,999,999,999. So it’s fun to see pundits who are so mad Apple made it first now move the goal posts. $1 trillion isn’t cool. It’s $2 trillion that’s cool.
Unless Apple also gets there first in which case it’s $3 trillion.
There’s another company that actually innovates, is smarter, faster and more nimble – and its name is Amazon.
Who can forget such innovative products as the Fire Phone and employees who can work for hours without peeing? These are the innovations customers crave.
Amazon is a very successful online retailer and hosting company. But how many of those innovations have been introduced in the last few years while Tim Cook has supposedly been eating bonbons and watching his stories? Graham never gets around to describing the recent startling innovations coming out of Seattle that put Apple to shame. He just says Apple’s stopped innovating and Amazon is so cool because packages arrive at your doorstep.
…if I were Tim Cook, I wouldn’t get too complacent. Not with Amazon breathing down his neck.
Good note. The Macalope heard Cook was going to take the month of August off so… timely advice.
So, Apple won the race to $1 trillion but is still behind Amazon in the race of imagined innovations so it’ll lose the race to $2 trillion which was the real race the whole time. Got it?