On Wednesday, Wall Street valued Apple at $222.12 billion and Microsoft at $219.18 billion. The only company valued higher is Exxon Mobile at $278.64 billion.
According to NYTimes.com, the rapidly rising value attached to Apple by investors signals an important cultural shift, that consumers tastes have overtaken the needs of business as the leading force shaping technology.
For almost two decades, Microsoft, with its Windows and Office software franchises, was the leading force when it came to consumers and their computers. But the keyboard has now taken a back seat to a smartsphone’s touch screen.
Although Apple still sells computers, twice as much revenue is coming in from hand-held devices and music. The technology industry sold about 172 million smartphones last year, compared with 306 million PC’s, but smartphone sales grew as a pace that was five times faster.
But while Apple is leading the marketplace, Google is hot on the company’s heels. With its Android operating system and mobile advertising, Google is proving to be a force to be reckoned with in mobile devices.
Google, with a market cap of $151.43 billion, also appeared to leap ahead of Apple in a new potentially important area, Internet-connected televisions. In addition, Google is steering consumers toward yet a new model of computing in which Internet applications rule, rather than iPhone or desktop applications.
But Apple has the momentum. “Steve saw way early on, and way before Microsoft, that hardware and software needed to be married into something that did not require effort from the user,” said Scott G. McNealy, co-founder and longtime chief executive of Sun Microsystems.