Apple now worth $158.66 Billion - 4 times as much as Dell

Just Posted > How to Switch Part 11: Buying a Mac - tips and advice Apple Computers & Hardware at Amazon Mac Software at Amazon

Apple now worth $158.66 Billion - 4 times as much as Dell

May
02

By: switchtoamac at: 9:44 AM on May 2, 2008 | Comments (3)

Take that Michael Dell. Following the close of the US Stock Market on Thursday May 1, 2008 the market cap of Apple is now four times that of Dell. Apple is worth $158.66 billion vs Dell's measly $38.97 billion.

A picture is worth a thousand words

The following chart (courtesy of Google Finance) shows a chart of Apple versus Dell over the period of October 3, 1997 to today. As you can see, Apple has provided a return of 3275.50% over this period whereas Dell has returned 55.03%

Michael is that your foot in your mouth?
Lets backtrack to October 6, 1997. Michael Dell the CEO of Dell Computer made the following suggestion at the Gartner Symposium and ITxpo97 when asked what could be done to fix the Apple at the time:

"What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."

Steve Jobs' verbal response (1997)
On November 10, 1997, just over a month later Apple Interim CEO (iCEO) Steve Jobs responded:

"We're coming after you, you're in our sights."

Steve Jobs' email to Apple employees (2006)
At the time, Apple's market cap just surpassed Dell. Steve Jobs sent an email to Apple employees containing the following message:

"Team, it turned out that Michael Dell wasn't perfect at predicting the future. Based on today's stock market close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down, and things may be different tomorrow, but I thought it was worth a moment of reflection today. Steve."

It's only the beginning
So here we are, just over ten and a half years later and Apple is wortth just over four times as much as Dell. Apple's integrated end-to-end vision is winning in the marketplace. Macs, iPods, and the iPhone all leverage the most advanced operating system in the world, Mac OS X. People are switching to Macintosh computers in record numbers, Mac sales are spiking, and it's just the beginning.

3 Reader Comments

gamerman on: May 2, 2008 7:05 PM said:

i'd just like to highlight the fact that , although you may throw this figures to the ignorant masses , one must remember that apple has a wide range of products and does not just sell pc's. I would imagine that the huge recent success of apples ipod and affiliated products have perhaps made up 40-60% of these profits figures , and i also have to highlight how "measly" apples net worth looks to that of Microsoft's , so yeah , don't throw figures at us expecting all of us to be ignorant enough to blindly accept that the more money a company has the better all of its products will be, even compared to that of more specialist companies.

KenC on: May 3, 2008 12:55 AM said:

Well, gamerman, Dell sells more than "just PCs". It sells printers too, and digital cameras, all things Apple does not sell. What else do you want to tell us, that Dell is ever more measly looking compared to Microsloth?

nether on: May 3, 2008 8:53 AM said:

@gamerman: You must have forgotten about Dell's Axim handheld PC, the Dell DJ, the entire Dell Server line, the entire storage line like the Equilogics NAS systems, it's failed EMC integration line, how about the Dell TV line? I'm wondering who's "ignorant enough to blindly accept" information.

Speak your mind - Leave a Comment

Topics