Monday, October 3, 2011

IBM Surpasses Microsoft

IBM is one of the few companies with consistent profits in today's times, whereas Microsoft's stock has been bleeding value for awhile now. IBM going up 22% with Microsoft loosing almost 9%. IBM passed Microsoft for market value for the first time since 1996. The difference between the two technology firms Ted Shadler says is that IBM goes past computers. I also think Microsoft does too with its XBOX (especially after they bought the HALO franchise). As we know Bill Gates started Microsoft and said that IBM would go out of business. That was obviously something Mr. Gates wishes he had not said. Also I would just like to say, Apple is still the largest technology firm out there. I think that other companies should look at IBM's history and learn from it especially because it had a turn around period. I think that Microsoft is undervalued because of its huge rate of expansion throughout asia when Apple and IBM are not as big, thus I think that this is only short term.

3 comments:

Vincent Tong said...

Personally, I think that Microsoft's prime-time is coming to an end. With rival power-house Apple continuing to produce and execute better than any other smart-technology producing company, it won't be long before Apple OS could possibly rival Windows. Thus, if Microsoft hypothetically faces a long term decline in consumer taste for their products, I agree with you in the fact that it should look at IBM's case; tough times are not the end of the world for a company with such big assets.

Colin Grele said...

I agree with Vincent. Apple is an enormous company that is continuing to grow and will probably continue growing for a very long time. Apple continues to produce products that consumers want, and they do it will little competition from Microsoft. A perfect example is the iPod. Microsoft tried to create their own MP3 player, the Zune, and its numbers were not even close to those of the iPod. However, I still agree with what Billy said: this downturn in Microsoft's stock is only temporary.

Alex Batista said...

While I agree with the previous comments in certain regards, I must disagree on a founding point. Microsoft is in absolutely no immediate danger. We as a nation, and a world of nations, are still well within the technology boom, and demand for computers is only growing. Microsoft is at the forefront of this boom, along with Intel, AMD, Apple, and various other firms. True, IBM and Microsoft have shared a long and conflicting history – but an increase in one does not necessarily correlate to a decrease in the other. What people are most likely seeing is in fact a shift in consumer demand towards more portable products – i.e the smartphone market, which Microsoft has yet to truly enter. I will concede that Microsoft’s total marketshare is declining – but at what rate, and from where? Microsoft’s total marketshare for - just - its three most recent Operating systems – XP, Vista, and Windows 7 – represents over 85% of the total market. Apple? Less than 8%. The mistake made is confusing the OS PC market with the cell phone market. And even there, while Apple’s trademark IOS is performing well, it is beginning to hemorrhage customers daily to the new Android operating system, designed by Google. Apple’s total marketworth is up – but do not confuse this with dominance in the personal computer industry.