Apple is now ninety percent as large as Microsoft

A few years ago, Steve Jobs allegedly sent a company wide email to his employees to brag about the fact that Apple had just surpassed Dell in terms of marketcap, meaning that – according to the stock market, at least – Apple had become a larger computer than its computer selling rival. This may have had something to do with the fact that Dell CEO Michael Dell had once suggested during Apple’s lowest point that the company should be shut down and the money given back to the shareholders. But with Apple now having eight times the marketcap of Dell, that particular battle is fairly far into the rearview mirror. In fact, with a string of good news out of Cupertino continuing to drive Apple’s stock price ever higher here in 2010, the company is now threatening to surpass a rival of a different kind. That’s right: at least on paper, Apple is now about ninety percent as large as Microsoft itself.

How is that possible? While Microsoft continues to largely be a three-trick pony in terms of revenue (Windows, Office, Xbox), the company’s steady growth isn’t exactly exciting investors as they realize that most of the company’s most rent high profile launches (Zune, Bing) haven’t taken off in any meaningful way. In contrast, Apple, despite its continued small share of the computer market, is showing its greatest ever gains in that area – along with dominance of the digital music market (on the hardware and software side), great success in the smartphone business with its iPhone, and has recently become the first company to have any notable success in the tablet computing market. In other words, Apple gives investors plenty of reasons to get excited about opportunities for significant growth, while Microsoft now more resembles a bank than a technology company; an investor’s money is almost certainly safe, but the growth potential is limited.

As it stands at the moment, Apple’s marketcap is $236 billion, while Microsoft’s is at $266 billion (according to Yahoo! Finance). This means that Apple’s individual share price would have to jump from its current $260 mark to roughly $290 a share, with Microsoft’s share price standing still, in order for Apple to surpass in marketcap the rival which so many people once mistakenly thought either owned Apple or had already put it out of business.