MeDroogies, can you tell me the % sales of software vs hardware for Apple?
Another point to make is this: what is RNWK's revenue from software? Answer: $20M in the last quarter. Their 1998 revenues were $64.8M. They have yet to turn a profit! But their stock price is $169, and their market cap is $6.27B, which is more than Apple's!
If Apple could steal 50% of RNWK's market share, and that translated into 10% of RNWK's market cap, AAPL would hit, what, $100/share? (I'm guessing).
Re: AAPL vs HWP, GTW, etc. I don't see why it's irrelevant to compare AAPL to HWP and CPQ. A big reason Apple's revenues are down but margins up is that it dropped its low margin products. HWP is still hanging on to those. That's a plus for Apple, it shows that they know where the future is. As for comparing with CPQ, god, how can we not compare them? Everyone is calling CPQ "the next Apple". They can only hope! And as for GTW, yeah, they're somewhat similar, but GTW is only a boxmaker, while Apple is so much more. In the end, there is no single valid comparison for Apple. Ultimately we need to take a composite image of DELL, RNWK, MSFT, GTW, HWP, SUNW, SONY, etc., and frankly I like that composite. Apple is looking good!
Richard, I don't want to pick on you. But you're looking at a company that doing incredibly well, and pointing to one thing that is marginally less incredible (but still better than a lot of other companies), and saying that that justifies a low valuation. I'm saying, let's look at all the other stuff and understand that AAPL should be valued much, much higher.
rhet0ric |
