iPhone's revenue bigger than all of Microsoft


Recommended Posts

iPhone generated $24.42 billion revenue. During the same quarter, all of Microsoft: $20.89 billion. Apple revenue $46.33 billion was more than twice Microsoft's, and so was the net income $13.06 billion versus $6.62 billion.

Just a remainder :

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer dismissed iPhone, in a USA Todayinterview: "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60 percent or 70 percent or 80 percent of them, than I would to have 2 percent or 3 percent, which is what Apple might get".

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer dismissed iPhone, in a USA Todayinterview: "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60 percent or 70 percent or 80 percent of them, than I would to have 2 percent or 3 percent, which is what Apple might get".

And you know, he was probably right. I'd like to see what Apple's numbers would have been like, had they kept the iPhone as a $500 item.
  • Like 1

id have to say it makes sence, people break phones all the time, upgrade, get new models. almost a yearly or 2 year cycle.

Windows once for the entire life of their computer, Office as long as they can and thats even IF they buy it and not share it with/from friends ( literally customers have wanted to put Office XP on Windows 7 and then get angry when Outlook doesnt work properly )

so yea it makes sence, majority of MS's sales are either to OEM's or Office

Well, when you sell the most overpriced, ridiculously expensive electronic equipment in the history of the world, you're bound to make a lot of money.

Balmer's a complete idiot if he thought the iPhone would stay at $500. I'm pretty sure he didn't, though. But Balmer isn't known to be one of the better CEOs out there...

  • Like 2

Hopefully they keep some of that cash, so they can bail themselves out when they crash again.

With alternative phones getting much better, and this year will be the year of much cheaper tablets, i dont see how apple can sustain this overpriced thing they're doing for much longer.

and it's a bit silly to compare them to microsoft anyways since they're really entirely different companies, and do things much differently.

Are you kidding me? Since when is $0, $100 and $200 considered this "over priced thing"?

Either way, considering their sales in every division is increasing, there's plenty of room in the market.

And MS and Apple have been compared to each other since day one. The comparison is nothing new.

Balmer's a complete idiot if he thought the iPhone would stay at $500. I'm pretty sure he didn't, though. But Balmer isn't known to be one of the better CEOs out there...

he also said the iPod was crap and wasnt going to sell, same with the iPhone and iPad........ if they would have stopped playing catchup for almost eternity and brought out their Zune, made their WinMo not crap and ontime, and made a tablet OS instead of putting a full blown WinXP on a small touchscreen. ( PITA without a stylus due to icons ) they would be the ones laughing to the bank

*Edit* and personally they arent goign to make a dent and killed themselved already for the crap they are doing regarding Pricing the Win8 Tablets.... im not going to buy one for a Grand thats for shure, especially when i can get 2 of any other tablet for same price.

Well, when you sell the most overpriced, ridiculously expensive electronic equipment in the history of the world, you're bound to make a lot of money.

Well, Microsoft sells overpriced, ridiculously expensive OS for $300.

  • Like 3

Well, Microsoft sells overpriced, ridiculously expensive OS for $300.

And again, you show your ignorance.

You can get Windows 7 Home Premium for less than $100 if you know where to look.

Every major company have their season in the sun. Microsoft was worth $586B in its glory heyday, and has now sustained around $250B for the last decade. Similar trend with every major players like GE, Cisco, IBM, etc in history.

354402-132719726211151-Kim-Klaiman_origin.png

354402-132719739534052-Kim-Klaiman_origin.png

354402-132719742005122-Kim-Klaiman_origin.png

Apple right now is worth around $400B market cap value. Will topple Microsoft record? Maybe. And can Apple escape the law of the Business Life Cycle? Probably not.

Well, when you sell the most overpriced, ridiculously expensive electronic equipment in the history of the world, you're bound to make a lot of money.

good thing you speak for only applehaters which are a slight more handicapped than apple fanboys. A good product is simply a good product no matter who it comes from.

Well, Microsoft sells overpriced, ridiculously expensive OS for $300.

Cannot agree less!!

Here they cannot sell any OS edition less that Rs. 5000 ($100) and they blame pirates. I got Ultimate for 12000 ($240) and there was this huge buyer's remorse.

But after buying original iPhone 4, for $700, I had no remorse.

This is something Microsoft needs to work on.

Not surprising since with the iPhone, you have to upgrade every year to get new features most common in all other phones. Like a camera, multi tasking, and probably with the new iPhone 5, 4g.

But anyway, a lot of MS products people use for years after a newer version was released. Lots still use Windows XP, and some companies, believe it or not, still use Win9x and Win2k. And I know from talking to my friends, lots of companies still use Office 2k3.

Either way, I dont really care. Just spouting my 2cents worth.

And again, you show your ignorance.

You can get Windows 7 Home Premium for less than $100 if you know where to look.

Yes, but not everyone wants an OEM license. Buying the standard retail non-upgrade package is fairly expensive irregardless of version.

Yes, but not everyone wants an OEM license. Buying the standard retail non-upgrade package is fairly expensive irregardless of version.

This always puzzles me.. If you're not willing to pay a reasonable price for a piece of software that you use every single day, and in fact, enables you to actually use your computer in a way that you want to use it, why aren't you using Linux?

Windows is not over priced when you consider what you use it for (everything). It's usually pirates that try to justify its price as a reason for stealing it.

BTW, "irregardless" isn't a word. :p

Well, Microsoft sells overpriced, ridiculously expensive OS for $300.

Reality is that Windows is no more expensive than OSX, in fact it's cheaper. But you have to remember that part of the price when you buy a Mac is the license for the OS, a rather big part of the price (much bigger than on a Windows PC). and all the boxed copies for sale at stores, they're effectively upgrade. They don't say they are, but that's what they are, and that's why they are cheaper. After all can you buy an Apple computer without an OS for cheaper to buy the OS separately ? no.

Well, when you sell the most overpriced, ridiculously expensive electronic equipment in the history of the world, you're bound to make a lot of money.

Yeah, Microsoft would never do that. Windows 7 Home Premium ?107 on Amazon. The disc and box costs them probably ?0.70 that is a huge markup.

Just because someone makes profits doesn't make them evil. Apple puts a lot of money in to research and development just like Microsoft does (we are talking billions of dollars here) which is what the parts breakdown of the devices do not reflect. They both invest heavily in to their products and we live in capitalist countries where if the value isn't there people wouldn't buy it so obviously their pricing is correct or it just wouldn't sell. It isn't like oil where we need it and will continue to buy it regardless of price.

iPad: 15.43 million units sold are higher than HP's, the biggest PC seller, PC (desktops, laptops, tablets) sales combined.

Reality is that Windows is no more expensive than OSX, in fact it's cheaper. But you have to remember that part of the price when you buy a Mac is the license for the OS, a rather big part of the price (much bigger than on a Windows PC). and all the boxed copies for sale at stores, they're effectively upgrade. They don't say they are, but that's what they are, and that's why they are cheaper. After all can you buy an Apple computer without an OS for cheaper to buy the OS separately ? no.

Wrong. OSX is $29.99. Buying a Windows PC without Windows will cost you $50 less. Buying a clean without crap Windows PC with Windows 7 will cost you additional $50-100.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Thank god they got rid of the disgusting looking sidebars, and the corner radius looks much better, too. Two things I hated on day one, and never got used to.
    • JetBrains launches Rider 2026.2 EAP 5, bringing several AI improvements by David Uzondu JetBrains has released the fifth EAP version of Rider 2026.2, bringing a faster startup flow with the new non-modal startup screen and quality-check hooks for Claude Code and Codex. In the latest EAP release, Rider now has newly bundled "quality-check" hooks that run background tests on code edits before the external agent proceeds. For example, after Claude Code rewrites a class, Rider immediately triggers a PostToolUse hook that analyzes the code for syntax errors and formatting warnings. It then passes those findings back to the model as feedback, allowing the agent to fix its own output before finalizing the task. If Rider detects compilation errors, the IDE prevents the agent from treating the task as complete, while minor formatting warnings simply help guide the model toward better output. The "Explain with AI" feature can now tackle tricky build errors directly from the console, helping .NET developers who frequently wrestle with multi-targeting failures and MSBuild errors. JetBrains introduced Explain with AI back in the 2024.1 release cycle. With this feature, instead of forcing developers to copy long diagnostics into a separate chat window, Rider now lets you trigger these explanations directly from the error source. In similar EAP news, JetBrains recently opened the first EAP for IntelliJ IDEA 2026.2, with features that appeal to both those who are into AI-assisted coding and those who prefer "classic" manual development. For manual developers, the release adds revamped dependency completion for Maven and Gradle build scripts, which pulls data directly from the local cache to suggest relevant versions. It also brings the Spring Debugger update, displaying security indicators next to endpoints to visualize secured routes during runtime. In addition to database migration tools for Flyway and Liquibase, this build introduces a Hibernate debugger that shows the exact SQL or HQL queries that the framework plans to execute, letting developers jump directly to the Java code that triggered them.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Very Popular
      Captain_Eric earned a badge
      Very Popular
    • One Month Later
      amusc earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      DJC50PLUS earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      DJC50PLUS earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Proficient
      Eric Biran went up a rank
      Proficient
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      502
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      222
    3. 3
      ATLien_0
      87
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      80
    5. 5
      +Edouard
      80
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!