Revenue

Jobs' net is bigger than Ballmer's

For the first time in decades, Apple's net income has overtaken Microsoft's

One by one, the bragging rights are going Steve Jobs' way.

In May 2010, Apple's (AAPL) market cap passed Microsoft's (MSFT).
In October, Apple overtook Microsoft in total revenue.
On Thursday, when Microsoft reported its earnings for the March quarter, Steve Ballmer lost what edge he still had. Microsoft's net income for calendar Q1 2011 was $5.23 billion. Apple's was $5.99 billion.

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GOOG Earnings Thursday: Analyst forecast roundup

Analysts are publishing their forecasts for Google's Q1 2011 earnings.

Thursday's earnings call will be the first under new CEO Larry Page and analysts are expecting to get some guidance on the direction of the company.  Overall the outlook is positive with expectations of Google (GOOG) beating guidance and the Street.

Interestingly, there isn't much talk about the ITA purchase, which has now gotten Federal approval.

Here we go...

Chart: Where Apple makes its money

Last quarter, 65% came from products that did not exist three and a half years ago

We've been waiting for Asymco's Horace Dediu to post the latest version of his lovely Apple (AAPL) quarterly sales chart because it's the one that shows most clearly how the company's various business lines are growing. You can read his analysis here.

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]

Analysts weigh in on Google earnings tomorrow

Google reports earnings after the closing bell tomorrow and analysts weigh in on that they expect.

Sorry for the jargon, folks, but the analysts following Google aren't really the literary type. Reading through, there's not too much surprising here-- analysts are all expecting a blowout quarter for Google, due in large part to the holiday season. Let's check in on how much they see Google pulling in and what that'll do MORE

Jobs' is now bigger than Ballmer's

Four years ago, Microsoft (MSFT) pulled in nearly $6 billion more in sales than Apple (AAPL). Now Apple's is total revenue is $4.1 billion bigger than Microsoft's.

Meanwhile, Apple's market cap, which overtook Microsoft's in May, continues to outpace Redmond's. The total value of its shares now stands at $279.6 billion, compared with Microsoft's $227.4 billion.

See also:

It's still a Windows world
Ballmer's is still bigger than Jobs'

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter MORE

Was this Apple's $20 billion quarter?

The blogger-analysts say damn straight. The Street isn't far behind

Wall Street was more than a little skeptical in July when Apple (AAPL) CFO Peter Oppenheimer offered his revenue guidance for the quarter that ended two weeks ago: $18 billion -- a 47% increase from Sept. 2009.

"We hadn't girded ourselves for a mammoth revenue forecast," wrote Oppenheimer's Yair Reiner the next day, "and neither, we believe, had the Street."

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YouTube is making money?

Anonymous analysts who spoke to the New York Times think so.

It is hard to discern whether YouTube is making a profit, because Google (GOOG) doesn't break its numbers out separately from its other ad-driven properties, at least not yet.  It is also hard to quantify what is a YouTube sale and what is a Doubleclick sale because Google uses one unit of the company to make money off another.

So how are spots that advertise MORE

Will Apple stop growing 37% a year?

The law of large numbers says it must. Not anytime soon, says Robert Paul Leitao.

The law of large numbers as applied to finance (as opposed to flipping a coin) says that as a company grows, its chances of sustaining large percentage revenue gains diminish. That's because an expanding enterprise must grow faster and faster just to maintain a constant percentage growth rate. Indeed, a company growing 30% to 50% a MORE

Ballmer's is still bigger than Jobs'

But four years ago Microsoft's quarterly revenue was 2.7 times Apple's. Now it's 2.2% larger.

When Apple (AAPL) reported quarterly revenue of $15.7 billion on Tuesday, there was a lot of speculation that this would be the quarter that it finally overtook its long-time rival.

But it was not to be -- at least not yet. Microsoft (MSFT) reported its fourth quarter earnings after the markets closed on Thursday and it easily MORE

Google's Adsense revenue share revealed

In the spirit of transparency and perhaps a shot across the bow to Apple's iAds, Google released their revenue sharing for Adsense today.

In a post this morning on the official Inside Adsense blog, Google (GOOG) finally revealed on of the ratio of ingredients to its advertising 'special sauce'.

Content publisher revenue share is 68% Worldwide and Google notes that the figure hasn't changed since it began in 2003.  Google says its 32% share of the revenue MORE