the very fact that we're comparing apple, a (mainly) hardware company, to a bunch of software companies is in itself a measure of incredible success for Apple.

If you want hardware then Nvidia about up about 450x since 2011 :-)

Microsoft is hardware company too. Surface, Xbox, computer peripherals, etc.

they're clearly not the main revenue drivers, contrary to Apple

If you look at Apple's profits - it's about evenly split between 'Services' ( like music and app sales etc ) and hardware.

Now hardware gross revenue is about 3x the services - but the profit margin is much higher on services.

Apple don't break out the numbers so it's difficult to know how much of that service revenue is tied to people owning Apple hardware and how much is independent ( like Apple Music or Apple TV ).

yeah I think the key point is in your last sentence - maybe some people would buy Apple Music/TV without an iphone or an AppleTV? I don't think anyone would buy icloud without the hardware though. And presumably they're bundling applecare in the "services" as well :)

> Apple's market capitalization in 2011 was approximately $350 billion to $377 billion by year-end 2011

> Microsoft's market capitalization in 2011 was approximately $220 Billion

Those are post iPhone numbers being multiplied.

Also, arguably, iPhones made everyone else on that list stupid rich and drove insane demands for their products. Instagram and Snapchats fortunes need more than Windows Mobile phones ever gave. Apples rising tide helped the web giants.

Aside from a false start with Apple Intelligence, Apple did not try to repeatedly and shamelessly shove AI down everyone's throats in all their products and services, which is why their "growth" hasn't been as pronounced as those of the others. And, frankly, I'm OK with that.

They do like to pretend Siri is comparable, though. Which is, frankly, insulting.

Is Zuckerberg retiring already? I'd gladly same the same about him then. But this isn't about any of those companies.

Why are you comparing Apple to software companies. Apples to oranges.

Market valuation alone is not sufficient, percentage of market-share matters too. Under Cook, iPhone market-share grew from 15-18% to 25% in US and an insignificant amount to ~20% globally. As an example for why market-share matters, TSMC's market-share is ~$2T, while Apple's market cap is $3.93T (as of today). Yet TSMC has a market-share of close to 90% for ICs in circulation today.

I'm not a fanboy by any means, just looking at the numbers.

You’re comparing Apple to Facebook is especially gross.

On so many levels.

Both are companies are repulsive. There's something comparable here.

"There are five companies that we selected because they have absolutely massive growth, far beyond anything else in the market. Should we really say Apple did well just because they're a member of that group?"

Dell?