I think the real shocker here isnt that Apple is worth that much, but that Greece is worth that much lol.

Wasn't there a report out not too long ago that Apple has more cash on hand than the entire US gov't does or something?

I don't see it this way. Though things look a little disjointed, Microsoft here is playing a chess game and is slowly moving the pieces in to place. Win 8, Xbox 720, Windows Phone...will all align in the next 12-24 months. And thats just their consumer side, business, tools and services side is head and shoulders above anyone else.

They have a total monopoly with office, mail exchange and cloud services. Even if you were to wipe windows off the map today microsoft is profitable. 

Finally, Windows 8 is coming and this is the tablet ecosystem that competes with Apple and iOS. On top of that, Windows 7 remains unchallenged in the desktop world and will be a viable option for many years to come. So microsoft has everything to gain from Win 8 and not much to lose.

So we can't critize Apple Products?! Apple products are  ███████ , not only that but 
 ██████ ██████████ ██  ████!!!!!

Microsoft has been "just around the corner" from really getting rolling in the mobile market for about ten years now. You can bank on Win 8/ Phone 8 finally getting them there but I see it as more of too little, too late. It's just more of the same. I think they'll do well enough for themselves and they'll carve out a small corner of the market but they can't keep losing in new markets and expect me to keep caring about their products. Outside of the Xbox, they haven't made a splash in a new market in 15 years.

And Win7 is hardly "unchallenged". One of Microsoft's biggest problems is that they can't get people to upgrade to the damned thing. Ten years ago, Apple had about 4% of the market. Now, they're responsible for 12-13% of computer sales (not including iPad). Linux, while still just a small nuisance, holds more market than it did ten years ago (and it dominates server space). And that's not even including the incursions from the phone/tablet market that will continue to eat into traditional computer sales. Microsoft needs to completely re-think what it's doing because it is slowly moving into irrelevance, much like IBM. It won't be next year, it won't even be ten years from now. But in 20 or 30 years, they could be another case of "hey, remember those guys, where are they now?"

First of all, Microsoft had lots of success in the mobile space. Infact they were number one in marketshare in 2006, 2007 and second to RIM in 2008. So this 10 year statement of waiting to something to happen is a little uneducated and ignorant...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile#Market_share

Apple did come along with the iPhone out of nowhere and introduced the idea of an ecosystem which changed the mobile game. Sure, it took microsoft a bit too long to react but they have a sound strategy to build an ecosystem using windows phone, Windows 8 and xbox which has a very good chance of surpassing iOS down the road.

I agree that they took too long to counter the iPhone, but the bottom line is that this was the right thing to do for Microsoft. Just look at Googles situation... They have completely lost control of the Android ecosystem. Amazon Kindle Fire is going o be the best selling Android tablet an it doesn't have a single Google service on it... Sure Android is very successful at getting out there and on devices, but the revenue and growth opportunity for Google isn't reflective of that. If microsoft ever got to Android like marketshare with windows phone, it would be bringing Windows desktop like revenue with it, while ensuring that the experience is great for every device and keeping consumers happy. This sounds like the right strategy to me, even if it fails.

Finally I have no clue where you're getting your Apple/Linux desktop marketshare. My guess is that you're looking at US sales only. Worldwide, Linux, MAc OSX and everyone else combuned are at around 10% while Microsoft is hovering at 90%.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/15/windows-7-overtakes-xp-globally-vista-found-weeping-in-a-corner/

As a totally respectable suggestion, I would suggest for you to look up the strengths of Microsoft in 2012 and see where they are as a company. Things like software development tools, cloud services, Microsoft Exchange and Office...hell even Bing, which along with Yahoos chunk is toying with 30% search marketshare, have been huge success stories for Microsoft. And this is all in the last 5 years ...

If they keep going like they are, I don't see them being on a "where are the now" episode in the next 10 years at all. :)

^^

Windows CE/Mobile/Phone dropped from its leadership on smartphones like PlayStation did from consoles, except that PlayStation's leadership was profitable and far longer, while Windows' drop was even more dramatic and it lost money even when it was the market leader. And except that PlayStation is recovering some ground lost, Windows, well, *cough*... Most people just don't want Windows also in their phones, maybe MS should ask Xzibit to persuade them.

About Android: openness, freedom and absence of a Google monopoly are amongst its strong points to make phone producers love it.
Apple has no problem with closedness and monopoly, as it uses iOS only on its own HW, it doesn't need to persuade any other producer, just the end users.
But MS wants to sell a closed system with its monopoly on the ecosystem to 3rd parties when the latter can have a system without those drawbacks. Not easy in a market where it doesn't enjoy the power of legacy and monopoly.
About Office, it's still leader on PC, but a whole new, bigger world not using it is growing outside of Windows PC world, and the need of intercommunicability will dwarf its ex-proprietary formats, once one of its weapons, now an anchor tied around its neck, and make it become at best leader of a niche. The choice of opening OOXML, but making its formats definitions so convoluted to hamper competitors will instead just kill Office itself.

Apple did not get one penny of my hard earned cash, EVER!
Props to Woz, though.

You're totally right. When the smartphone market was 1/100th the size it is today, Microsoft was in second place. Never mind that it was a de facto second place because nobody else was competing in the market and that Microsoft never made any money from the venture, that second place is really worth talking up their successful mobile ventures. I owned two of those phones. They were terrible. People bought them because it was the only option outside of RIM.

As for OS X, I said Apple was selling about 12% of computers, not that they had 12% of the market. There is a big difference there. Market share factors in past sales and overall market, current sales show where the future market is headed. The PC market is saturated, OS X/Linux are making incremental growth, and it took MS almost ten years to create an operating system that could get people to upgrade from XP. Yeah, let's rave about how well Redmond has been doing in that arena as well.

Bing has brought MS a little more market but only after they spend a MASSIVE amount of money on the system. You're ignoring that MSN had a similar market share to Bing so it's not as if the new system is stealing a bunch of market from Google. Bing picked up a few points and took MSN's market, that's all.

Jesus, I didn't say it would take ten years for them to be a "where are they now" victim. I said 20 or 30. IBM didn't disappear in a decade. No company that large will fade away in ten years. And it's not as if IBM is out of business, they're doing pretty well. They're simply much smaller than they should be and they're completely out of the public's eye at this point. And Microsoft could be heading down that road unless they right this circling ship.

As for Google and Android fragmentation, that's the best thing Microsoft has going for it right now. If Google doesn't watch themselves, they could collapse the ecosystem as developers get frustrated and bail and customers leaves in droves for more stable platforms.

I forgot about MS's cloud services. They're intriguing. I think that's another place they might succeed moving forward. But Exchange? Really? A system that has been around for at least ten years (from what I can remember) and another system that Google is vigorously attacking with a free alternative. Exchange will stick around for years because it's a great enterprise solution but it's also not a growth market. The same goes for Office. It's a dwindling ecosystem at best as it continues to face threats from free alternatives from Sun and Google.

You seem to think that I feel as if MS is going to fail. I don't think that at all but I DO think it's a possibility. Outside of Xbox, they are late to every new market, have a tendency to throw out half-assed solutions to problems, and generally seem to lack real direction. These problems can be fixed but right now, it doesn't look great for the company. They're four years late to the mobile party, Win 8 looks full of promise but so has every other Microsoft operating system of the past 15 years, and almost all their successful markets are stagnant at best. That's a recipe for a slow burn into obscurity.

rocket, we know the videogame market is very volatile, things can change quite fast..with that said, do you expect the Xbox division to continue growing next generation?

Back in 2006/2007, who would´ve thought the 360 would be selling more than 70 million?...quite a jump compared to the original Xbox.

You can see in the sales charts the 360 has been for some time, the 'darling' console in NA..if MS can capitalize on that, maybe the 'XB720' has a good chance of being next generation´s best selling console in NA right out of the gate...and keep growing everywhere else (with the exception of Japan, probably).

Anyway, with the talk about MS´ several divisions, the Xbox one seems to be one of the most promising, at least for the mid term.

I still think there's room to grow. Microsoft's smartest move the past ten years was recognizing the allure of smart televisions and positioning the Xbox to be a content delivery system for almost every form of mass media. It's much more than a game system and that market is just barely being tapped at this point. By continuing to evolve the system with features such as Xbox TV, I think they're nicely positioned to continue to make inroads from the Xbox, though it may not be in traditional game sales as we think of them now.