Apple now worth more than Microsoft and Intel combined

By Aemon Malone June 6, 2011

Apple’s meteoric rise over the past decade is not exactly a well-kept secret. But a new report gives a fresh perspective on just how high Apple has risen. Consider that according to some number crunching carried out by MacDailyNews Apple’s worth now exceeds Microsoft and Intel (a duo known as Wintel) combined.

According to the report, which was compiled on Friday after stock markets had closed, the value of the Cupertino, California-based Apple stands at $317.60 billion. Microsoft’s value was put at $201.59 billion and Intel’s value at $115.21 billion. Add those latter two figures up and Wintel’s value is $316.80 billion — just under a billion short of Apple’s assessed worth. Just over one year ago, Apple made news when it first eclipsed Microsoft’s “enterprise value.”

Recommended Videos

Microsoft and Intel, of course, are still far and away the companies of choice when it comes to desktop computing hardware and operating systems. And that’s not likely to change anytime soon. Apple’s share of the PC market currently is around 7.4 percent and Wintel’s combined share is at around 92.6 percent.

So while Apple may not be dominating the traditional PC market, its iPad and iPhone have made tremendous progress in transforming the ideal of a “personal computer” into a device that is highly integrated, mobile and, to many, increasingly indispensable. That shift towards a more mobile computing environment doesn’t look to be a fad either. Apple’s success is almost guranteed to continue into the near future. However, the question remains if Apple’s gains will come at Microsoft’s and Intel’s expense.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Computing

How Intel and Microsoft are teaming up to take on Apple

An Intel Meteor Lake system-on-a-chip.

It seems like Apple might need to watch out, because Intel and Microsoft are coming for it after the latter two companies reportedly forged a close partnership during the development of Intel Lunar Lake chips. Lunar Lake refers to Intel's upcoming generation of mobile processors that are aimed specifically at the thin and light segment. While the specs are said to be fairly modest, some signs hint that Lunar Lake may have enough of an advantage to pose a threat to some of the best processors.

Today's round of Intel Lunar Lake leaks comes from Igor's Lab. The system-on-a-chip (SoC), pictured above, is Intel's low-power solution made for thin laptops that's said to be coming out later this year. Curiously, the chips weren't manufactured on Intel's own process, but on TSMC's N3B node. This is an interesting development because Intel typically sticks to its own fabs, and it even plans to sell its manufacturing services to rivals like AMD. This time, however, Intel opted for the N3B node for its compute tile.

Computing

All the ways Intel Macs are still better than Apple Silicon Macs

cheap macbook deals

MacBooks are pretty amazing these days. Thanks to the efficiency of Apple Silicon, you get all-day battery life, as well as the ability to edit videos when unplugged from power. The new MacBook Air with the M3 chip is even good enough for gaming.

All of that is in contrast to the Intel Macs of the past.

Computing

Here’s a shocking reminder of just how far ahead Intel is in race with AMD

Intel Core i5-14600K processor inside its socket.

It's no secret that between Intel and AMD, it's Intel that holds the majority of the market -- but a recent market analysis report really highlights just how much Intel beats both AMD and Apple. While both Intel and AMD make some of the best CPUs, and Apple has its own excellent proprietary silicon, Intel's CPU shipments trump them both. The report tells us that Intel controls a whopping 78% of the PC processor market.

The information comes from Canalys, a PC industry research firm. It's worth noting that it excludes tablets, which would have bumped up Apple's numbers a bit, as well as Qualcomm's. But zooming in on the PC CPU market alone, including desktops and laptops, tells a different story. The research shows a 78% market share for Intel and 13% for AMD, while Apple accounts for about 8% or slightly more. The rest belongs to MediaTek, Qualcomm, and ARM.