View this article at: http://dev.macnn.com/articles/07/10/19/apple.worth.double.dells
Friday, Oct 19, 2007 1:45pm
Apple's market value double...
Michael Dell's recommendation to Steve Jobs that "shut down (Apple) and return the money to shareholders" ten years ago has become increasingly preposterous. At the time, Dell had a market value of $4 billion to Apple's $700 million, but the Cupertino company's market value has since skyrocketed to $150 billion, more than double that Dell's current valuation. In fact, Apple has now surpassed Hewlett-Packard in market capitalization for the first time ever. Bloomberg reports that Apple may reveal annual revenues of more than $20 billion for the first time in the company's 31-year history when fourth quarter results are issued on October 22nd.

In early trading Friday, Apple's shares rose beyond $173, having more than doubled this year. During the fourth quarter earnings revelation, Apple also will disclose for the first time its share of the $60 to $220 monthly in fees AT&T receives for providing iPhone service. Analysts' estimates of Apple's commission range from $6 to $15 per subscriber a month. Analysis firm Pipper Jaffray believes that Apple will be missing a marginal amount of revenue from the sale of unlocked iPhones when it reports quarterly results for its fourth (September) quarter on October 22nd. Meanwhile the iPod continues to account for 70 percent of media-player sales in the U.S, Mac shipments have topped 1 million units for 11 straight quarters, and Apple's PC market share in the U.S. increased to 8.1 percent from 6.2 percent in the third quarter according to Gartner Inc.