The simplest explanation for this is that ess stock there is available to buy = higher stock price.

Google - gazillion shares at 760 = 250 billion dollars market cap 

Microsoft - megazilion shares at 30 = 250 billion dollars market cap

They both currently worth about the same in stock value. Microsoft is worth more than google in assets and protfolio though...

Two ways:

1) Licensing related Google apps to OEMs, such as maps and mail.

2) Serving up ads and collecting user data to better target those ads.

Some people will say Google Play sales, but a lot of that revenue gets shared with carriers or eaten up by costs.

All of this is undermined by companies like Amazon who strip out the Google apps and analytics. I expect Samsung might make the same play one day when it feels ready or when Google doesn't meet Samsung's needs in some way.

Thanks. I knew google don't make a dime from the OS and read the apps weren't really that profitable.

Thanks again.

In that case I am sorry they didn't perform better. But as long as you are happy....

Of course you are.

Earlier this year I was too looking at Nokia. I expected serious growth in September due to the new windows phone but the last thing I expected was for the shares to plummet at the launch. Thank God I listened to those in the know. I am only a poor man so at such a relative tiny share price I would only be happy at  200% or above growth taking into account my initial investment.

A company the size of Nokia - and one time market leader - operating at about 2.00 a share is pathetic by any standards.

But again, well done.

From about $400 to about $700:

http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=AAPL

+73% (if my memory serves)

I wouldn't be so sure about that. Android is at the peak of its popularity at the moment (in terms of marketshare) imo

What trend? That G+ is growing? Well, so is Twitter.

Twitter is the 8th most popular website in the world (which is amazing, considering that many users NEVER visit the website). Google, with all of their bundled services (excluding YouTube) is second behind Facebook. Referencing "active users" doesn't tell us much other than "people have logged in and done something". All you have to do is look at the activity on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ to see the massive disparity between FB/Twitter and G+. I do a fair amount of internet marketing for my own projects and check all three every day. G+ isn't even close.

I don't know anyone who isn't on Facebook. Maybe 25% of my friends are on G+. From launch day to now, maybe 1/4 of those are still active on G+. That means less than 10% of my friends actively use G+. Twitter is even higher than Facebook for me. Everybody I know tweets at least a little.

Android doesn't have a ton of room to grow in the phone space. The market will keep growing but it's not as if Android is going to jump to an 80% marketshare, especially with Microsoft throwing themselves at the mobile space for the umpteenth time in the last decade. Apple might even snatch back a small bit of market now that they have iPhones covering every major price point at every carrier.

Android has a lot of room to grow in tablets, though. It will be interesting to see how the next few months play out as Apple gets ready to roll out an iPad Mini. A large portion of Google's short-term future will depend on how aggressively Apple prices that thing. If it comes in at $249 or less, Google is going to have a long road in front of it. While the Nexus 7 is a *fantastic* tablet, Google is still struggling to get developers to produce quality tablet apps. The iPad is still miles ahead of them in that regard. It's not even close.