Just about a year ago, when Apple passed Microsoft in market cap, the Redmond loyalists were out in full force: that means nothing — look at the revenues! When Apple passed Microsoft in revenues last October, it was: who cares — look at the profits! We were looking, and we projected that this quarter just ended would be the one in which Apple passed Microsoft in that regard too.
Sure enough, they have. Easily.
Microsoft has just announced their Q3 2011 results. The numbers appear to be good, beating analysts’ expectations. But with net income now at $5.23 billion, Microsoft now comes in well behind Apple, which had a net income of $5.99 billion last quarter.
Last October, despite Apple pulling ahead in revenue, the profit gap was about $1.1 billion in Microsoft’s favor. Last quarter, that gap was down to roughly a $600 million. And now, rather remarkable, it’s over $700 million in the other direction — a $1.3 billion swing in just one quarter. And you can probably expect that trend to continue.
Meanwhile, on the revenue side of things, Apple now holds a roughly $8 billion advantage — $24.6 billion to $16.43 billion. And in market cap, Apple’s advantage is just about $100 billion — $318.45 billion to $224.43 billion.
Times change.
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