Comments on: Apple jumps 32 spots into Fortune 100

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:39:06 +0000

i agree with one of the comment that revenue without profit is waste of time to compare about. However its just the numbers..

By: Jim, Southington, CT

Jim, Southington, CT — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:31:03 +0000

How typical that the Windows-head droid morons are, as usual, bashing the most innovative company in the entire Tech sector: Apple. Not one of the tech companies ranked "ahead" of Apple can hold a candle to the superior quality of their products. The only reason that Windows is on 90% of the world's desktops is because Apple's Board fired Steve and Woz in the early '80s, and replaced them with John Scully of Pepsi fame, who was a great consumer marketer but didn't know diddly about how to market technology, despite having the most intuitive and user-friendly OS in the world (then AND now). So when Dell, Compaq, HP, Gateway and others came knocking in the early '80s and asked to license the Mac OS, Scully greedily said no because he wanted to control the whole vertical market: hardware AND software. If Steve Jobs had still been running the company in those days, we'd live in a different world today where Mac has the majority of the desktop market due to it's superior performance, ease of use and airtight back end (NO viruses, malware, spyware, adware, etc., which plague Windows over and over and over again because their back end is like a screen door: any smart 14 year old kid can write and distribute a Windows-threatening virus in about 15 minutes. Which OS would YOU rather use?). But John Scully said "No" when the hardware makers came a-calling, so the world is the way it is. Windows is at 90% NOT because of market forces on an even playing field, and CERTAINLY not because it's a better OS, but because of one idiot who BRIEFLY ran Apple (Thank God the Board came to their senses and rehired Steve eventually) and said "No" to the most important question in desktop OS marketing history.

So BRAVO Apple for your well-deserved climb into the Fortune 100. Yes, their products are more expensive (the whole argument of the current, very lame Windows TV ad campaign), but that's because they're simply better and more reliable than Windows boxes on a long-term basis, and this proves that the American consumer will pay for quality. Even in this economy, this proves that consumers will pay more for reliability and stability and QUALITY over market share, a highly-overrated statistic, which means they're buying Apple. I look forward to Apple advancing even further into the Fortune 100 next year as more and more people discover that high-quality and reliability are much more valuable than a dying, highly-overrated brand name like Windows. Microsoft's days of dominance are over, Mr Balmer. Get over it and start concentrating on giving the American consumer a better product than Windows Vista, which is universally detested even in the Windows community. Apple's run has only started.

By: KenC, Gardiner, Maine

KenC, Gardiner, Maine — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:18:28 +0000

When are the numbers not the numbers? When some companies are deferring revenues. Take Apple's iPhone for example. They sell one, they get either $200 or $300 from the consumer, and they also get about $360 from AT&T. When it gets averaged out, they get about $600 for each and every iPhone they sell. And, yet, rather than count $600 in sales, they only count 1/8th of that amount, about $75, and defer the rest, $525 into future quarters. Sure, in a few more quarters, as iPhone sales stabilize, the amount deferred from previous quarters, will make up for the amount deferred in the current quarter, but it hasn't yet, and it's a very large number.

GAAP reported revenues are $32.4B, while the real sales are $38B.

By: elllroy, berlin, germany

elllroy, berlin, germany — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:30:42 +0000

hy philip, what would be apple's rank if the biggest us companies would be meausered in profits?

By: Steven, Atlanta GA

Steven, Atlanta GA — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 09:00:34 +0000

Fortune 500 rankings are based on revenue. This is not good or bad way to rank companies, it's just a way. The Yahoo list uses market capitalization – once again, just a different way to rank. You can assign whatever relevance you like to a ranking method, or come up with your own – net profit, gross profit, debt, stock activity, whatever. But it does not make sense to dispute that a company is where it is on a particular list because of some unrelated criteria. The numbers are the numbers.

Yes, Microsoft is still way up there, despite what their stock has done. As long as they are on 90% of the world’s computers and are still selling Windows and Office as de facto industry standards, they will have high revenues. And of course, Apple has risen due in part to the fact that others have fallen. But it's not as if they've never been in the top 100 before. And, once again, this (Fortune) is a revenue ranking. As long as Apple is able to maintain their computer average selling prices (ASP) as highest in the industry, and continue to sell hundreds of millions of music players and phones, they will keep raking in the cash. This is not MS or Apple fanboism. The numbers are the numbers.

By: Phil, Princeton, NJ

Phil, Princeton, NJ — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:07:16 +0000

Impressive indeed, when you consider that they don't actually give their customers what they ask for.

By: jread, San Jose, Ca.

jread, San Jose, Ca. — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:58:19 +0000

Apple was 28th on profits

By: Phil, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Phil, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:49:53 +0000

Apple has a enough CASH and equivalents that they could buy 4 of the top 12 Fortune companies and become number 1 next year!

Hey Apple, for only $25 billion you can be number 1! Yay!

I can't wait for Fortune to Snif the Offy.

By: Phil, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Phil, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:30:04 +0000

The Fortune list is an absolutely ridiculous waste of time. If you want to find out what millions upon millions of intelligent people have agreed are the largest companies in the world use Yahoo's Finance Screener: http://screen.yahoo.com/b?mc=100000000000/&b=1&z=mc&db=stocks&vw=1

Aside from math errors on the top three in the list, these market valuations are determined by investors who have analyzed these companies current financial information and future potential far better than Fortune ever can.

You'll notice Apple is, for all intents a purposes, the 23rd largest company in the world.

By: Ryan Central IL

Ryan Central IL — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:19:32 +0000

These comments sound like your typical Apple fanboys. Uninformed, unreasonable, and spouting their mouths off only to end up looking like complete idiots in the end.