For the first time in eight years, Microsoft experienced a higher market cap value than Apple ($812.93 billion versus $812.60 billion) last week, making it the world’s most valuable company. The two tech giants have since been trading the title back and forth, reports The Verge.
On Friday, the software giant’s market value was more than $851 billion, compared with Apple’s $847 billion. Apple’s shares have dropped nearly 25 percent since October due to less demand for smartphones and rumblings of US tariffs on Chinese-made goods.
Apple first overtook Microsoft in 2010. Over the past five years, Apple’s stock has grown tremendously and was valued at $1 trillion earlier this year. However, investors are worried about iPhone sales, which make up 60 percent of the company’s revenue, reports RTT News. Apple cautioned that it may not meet Wall Street’s assessment for the last quarter of the year, which resulted in a drop in stock prices.
It’s been reported that soft sales of the XS have pushed Apple to restart the production of the iPhone X. The company has stopped disclosing its iPhone, iPad and Mac sales, making it a challenge for analysts to determine future iPhone sales numbers.
Meanwhile, Microsoft stock has been on the upswing since Satya Nadella was appointed CEO in 2014. One of the reasons is its refocus on the cloud, according to The Verge. The company has also performed well against one of its biggest competitors, Amazon. Microsoft passed Amazon last month and Google earlier this year in market cap value.
Diversification has also helped Microsoft succeed. Thirty-six percent of its revenue comes from Windows, Xbox, and Surface, while 86 percent of Google’s income is ad generated.
Microsoft has experienced disappointing ventures, such as the Windows Phone, which bombed. However, the company bounced back with a variety of cross-platform technologies, the cloud, and artificial intelligence. Like Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon, Microsoft is focusing on quantum computing and mixed reality computing with the intent to dominate the industry.
