Things Apple Is Worth More Than

September 19, 2011 8:31 AM

Things Apple Is Worth More Than
posted by noaccident (65 comments total)

“3.873 billion bricks in the Great Wall of China * $.52 per brick = Apple is worth more than the Great Wall of China”

I don't believe that the Great Wall of China is equal to the value of an individual brick times the number of bricks.
posted by John Cohen at 8:34 AM on September 19, 2011 [24 favorites]

Worth more than 10x all the child support paid last year

I first read that as "child labor" and I was all ready to see an uptick in iPhone production.
posted by DU at 8:35 AM on September 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

GDP and market capitalization are completely different things, and shouldn't be compared.
posted by Bezbozhnik at 8:35 AM on September 19, 2011 [2 favorites]

Clever, but clearly Things Netflix Is Worth More Than is the more challenging tumblr to write.
posted by pwnguin at 8:35 AM on September 19, 2011 [3 favorites]

Wow, if you sold all of Apple, you could buy 0.02 National Debt!
posted by vacapinta at 8:37 AM on September 19, 2011 [5 favorites]

I think at the moment I'd prefer /Things Netflix is Worth Less Than/.
posted by oonh at 8:37 AM on September 19, 2011

The Entire Economy of Singapore ... Singapore’s national GDP in 2016 is projected at $318 bil

These people don't understand the difference between the 'value' of an economy and it's GDP. Also, they use some weird CSS that prevents you from seeing whether or not you've highlighted the title.

If Singapore was a corporation you could buy stock in, the market cap would be several trillion dollars.
posted by delmoi at 8:37 AM on September 19, 2011 [8 favorites]

Yeah, I couldn't highlight the title either. And right-click claims it's an image. So apparently the "underline when hovering" is actually a second image.

Why do people take working things (in this case, text) and spend so much effort making them do less?
posted by DU at 8:41 AM on September 19, 2011 [6 favorites]

Oh jeepers. Each word is a separate image. Why?
posted by DU at 8:41 AM on September 19, 2011

Worth more than 10x all the child support paid last year

I wonder whether Apple is worth more than the paid and unpaid child support.
posted by griphus at 8:42 AM on September 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Stay tuned for my Tumblr, "Things Apple Plus $1 Is Worth More Than." The first post will be Apple. Book deal forthcoming.
posted by michaelh at 8:42 AM on September 19, 2011 [10 favorites]

These people don't understand the difference between the 'value' of an economy and it's GDP.

And I'm not a professional drug economist, but it seems like equating the worth of the global illegal drug trade to the value of "all the illegal drugs in the world" isn't quite right. And similarly, if you could buy stock in cocaine and heroin, I'm betting it would make Apple look like a lemonade stand.
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 8:44 AM on September 19, 2011 [4 favorites]

Why do people take working things (in this case, text) and spend so much effort making them do less?

This is a standard thing to do, actually. The site's CMS has a plugin to render the text as an image. this is so that the font looks the way they want it to.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 8:46 AM on September 19, 2011

Things Apple is Worth More Than:
1) Me.
2) You.
posted by seanyboy at 8:47 AM on September 19, 2011

Every Home in Detroit and Tampa Combined

Hahahah, that's not really saying much, is it?

Still, I wonder what growth paths apple is going to go on next. Since they're trying to turn computing into appliances -- it would be funny if they started selling actual appliances. Like washers and dryers and stuff. Or refrigerators. I don't think they can continue to grow like this without branching off into new businesses.

Oh jeepers. Each word is a separate image. Why?

Whaaaat? Here is the HTML:

<h2><a href="http://thingsappleiswo...">Every Home in Detroit and Tampa Combined</a></h2>

CSS lets you specify a highlight color, and if you specify it wrong users won't be able to tell when text is highlighted.
posted by delmoi at 8:48 AM on September 19, 2011

This is a standard thing to do, actually. The site's CMS has a plugin to render the text as an image. this is so that the font looks the way they want it to.

Oh your right. Even though the text is 'normal' in the document itself, they're doing something in javascript to replace the text.
posted by delmoi at 8:50 AM on September 19, 2011

All of those are impressive, until you get to the fact that they are still a small fish compared to the oil industry (Apple's net worth is roughly equivalent to 45 days of oil production). Wow.
posted by schmod at 8:50 AM on September 19, 2011 [3 favorites]

Whaaaat? Here is the HTML:

Base HTML is hardly representative of final source these days, after Javascript processing. Based on the page headers it looks like they're using Cufon.
posted by kmz at 8:52 AM on September 19, 2011

Still, I wonder what growth paths apple is going to go on next. Since they're trying to turn computing into appliances -- it would be funny if they started selling actual appliances. Like washers and dryers and stuff. Or refrigerators. I don't think they can continue to grow like this without branching off into new businesses.

Oh delmoi, we can always count on you for the FUD and lulz. Thanks for making my Monday morning a little brighter!
posted by entropicamericana at 8:52 AM on September 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Bigger than the GDP of Denmark.

Well it's not entirely fair to compare future earning potential (market capitalization) and present earnings, but still it's pretty interesting. Apple's current "GDP" is something like USD65b or let's say 1/5th of Denmark's.

With very few natural resources, the economy of Denmark relies almost entirely on human resources. 65% of GDP are services.

"The service sector makes up the vast amount of the employment and economy. Its industrialised market economy depends on imported raw materials and foreign trade. Denmark produces oil, natural gas, wind- and bio-energy. Its principal exports are machinery, instruments and food products."

Denmark GDP $313.825 billion, population 5,5m

Apple market cap $340 billion, population 0,05m

Danes are, as compared to Apple, obvious slackards and their country is badly run.
posted by three blind mice at 8:52 AM on September 19, 2011 [3 favorites]

All of those are impressive, until you get to the fact that they are still a small fish compared to the oil industry (Apple's net worth is roughly equivalent to 45 days of oil production). Wow.
posted by schmod

Yeah. Saudi Aramco.
posted by vacapinta at 8:52 AM on September 19, 2011

they are still a small fish compared to the oil industry

Both are in the chips.
posted by hal9k at 8:53 AM on September 19, 2011

DU: Oh jeepers. Each word is a separate image. Why?

Yeah, as kmz says, they're using Cufon, which is the latest rage for custom fonts for websites. A lot of Wordpress installs I work with use it, and it's just awful from a UI perspective.

When I become internet overlord, everything will be displayed according to Readability standards.
posted by Phire at 8:56 AM on September 19, 2011 [3 favorites]

so that the font looks the way they want it to.

I was going to joke that it was some Apple-y "we know what you want better than you do" reason. So sad that I was actually right.
posted by DU at 9:01 AM on September 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

At least Cufon seems slightly better than the old method that I remember being very popular (sIFR), which was actually substituting text with fucking Flash. I'm not rabidly anti-Flash, but just for making text look fancy? Ri-fucking-diculous.

Honestly I've never understood the obsession with controlling how text looks exactly, but I guess that's why I'm a coder, not a designer.
posted by kmz at 9:05 AM on September 19, 2011 [2 favorites]

All that money, and Finder is still hopelessly broken.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 9:06 AM on September 19, 2011 [2 favorites]

so i guess with all that money theyve been helping bail out the us, huh
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 9:07 AM on September 19, 2011

which is the latest rage for custom fonts for websites

Maybe 2-3 years ago. The CSS3 Font-face property is what all the cool kids use now.

I was going to joke that it was some Apple-y "we know what you want better than you do" reason. So sad that I was actually right.

The irony here is that Apple has been one of the major forces pushing the transition to HTML5 and CSS3 to handle stuff like this.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 9:08 AM on September 19, 2011 [2 favorites]

Current market price can be a measure of value, but the two should not be confused.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 9:22 AM on September 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

delmoi: "Since they're trying to turn computing into appliances -- it would be funny if they started selling actual appliances. Like washers and dryers and stuff. Or refrigerators"

Perhaps ironically, $500 iPad + Velcro + Refrigerator is a much more powerful "internet-enabled appliance" than anything ever sold under that label.
posted by Apropos of Something at 9:24 AM on September 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Someone should make a list of things that Apple is more irritating than. Everything on earth except baby beauty pageants, the cat meowing to be let out, Andy Dick and yet surprisingly not Hitler.
posted by Keith Talent at 9:27 AM on September 19, 2011 [9 favorites]

Someone should make a list of things that Apple is more irritating than. Everything on earth except baby beauty pageants, the cat meowing to be let out, Andy Dick and yet surprisingly not Hitler.

Here's a little koan to blow your tiny little mind:

Is Apple more irritating than the eternal chorus of 'apple sux amirite' comments?
posted by spicynuts at 9:37 AM on September 19, 2011 [11 favorites]

Yes, very much so.
posted by DU at 9:43 AM on September 19, 2011 [4 favorites]

Denmark's net worth > Apple's market cap
Denmark's GDP > Apple's sales
Apple's market cap > Denmark's GDP
Denmark's net worth > Apple's sales

Denmark wins. They probably right click on mice, too. Apple sux amirite.
posted by MuffinMan at 9:49 AM on September 19, 2011 [2 favorites]

Danes are, as compared to Apple, obvious slackards and their country is badly run.

But they make a good Danish.
posted by jonmc at 9:50 AM on September 19, 2011

A merger is in the works. Wait until you try the Apple iDanish.
posted by spitbull at 10:00 AM on September 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Uppity Pigeon #2: "And I'm not a professional drug economist, but it seems like equating the worth of the global illegal drug trade to the value of "all the illegal drugs in the world" isn't quite right. And similarly, if you could buy stock in cocaine and heroin, I'm betting it would make Apple look like a lemonade stand."

Oooookay... So now, hypothetically, if one wanted to say... invest in one of these alleged stocks. Um... How would one, hypothetically go about doing said investing? Understand that this is just a thought experiment. Purely blue-skying here.

Psssssst! Call me!


posted by Splunge at 10:02 AM on September 19, 2011

My faceless corporation can beat up do a reverse take over of your faceless corporation.
posted by blue_beetle at 10:10 AM on September 19, 2011

It seems arbitrary to compare these huge numbers with so little context. You can establish all kinds of improbable and ultimately meaningless relationships if you measure things the right way.
posted by clockzero at 10:18 AM on September 19, 2011

Not that establishing improbable and ultimately meaningless relationships is all bad, of course.
posted by clockzero at 10:18 AM on September 19, 2011

Danes are, as compared to Apple, obvious slackards and their country is badly run.

One word: Lego.
posted by chavenet at 10:24 AM on September 19, 2011

Of course all this posturing about what's bigger is just gonna get to the end of "the oldest game" and then somebody says "I am Hope" and they're declared the winner and everybody is suitably awed.
posted by kmz at 10:30 AM on September 19, 2011 [3 favorites]

apple...danish?
posted by tjenks at 10:31 AM on September 19, 2011

"Since they're trying to turn computing into appliances --it would be funny if they started selling actual appliances. Like washers and dryers and stuff. Or refrigerators"

I'm pretty sure it will be a single "iAppliance". It will have a single locked door to access everything, and whether you got access to the refrigerator or the blender or the toaster, would depend on the menu you select with the trackball. Oddly enough, the iAppliance has no provision for making ice, and the toaster will cook bagels, but not riest. But Apple will have determined those features aren't necessary, and the fans of the iAppliance will totally agree that making ice is obsolete. And finally, there will be no user assessable spaces in the iAppliance; if something drips or spoils and it starts to smell, just replace the thing.
posted by happyroach at 10:37 AM on September 19, 2011

Toast, not riest. Damn swype.
posted by happyroach at 10:39 AM on September 19, 2011

Is Apple more irritating than the eternal chorus of 'apple sux amirite' comments?

As a person without a horse in this eternal fight, I, perhaps unfairly, lump all my Apple irritation together with all these 'apple sux' comments into one big annoying lump of Apple-based annoyance.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:40 AM on September 19, 2011 [4 favorites]

...and yet, it still manages to be utterly worthless to me.
posted by klanawa at 10:49 AM on September 19, 2011

Never bring a horse to a dog fight!
posted by Dr Dracator at 11:30 AM on September 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Betcha the cyberpunk authors never anticipated that the face of corporate superpower hegemony would look like this.
posted by Apocryphon at 11:41 AM on September 19, 2011

Maybe not, but Douglas Adams had it about right.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 11:50 AM on September 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Unintentionally hilarious. Comparing Apple's market capitalization to Singapore's GDP, heh.

Apple's market cap is the theoretical price you would pay if you wanted to buy the entire company.

Singapore's GDP is the amount of economic value that Singapore creates in a *single year*

Which is to compare say a $5 bill to $5 of interest you could get on a $1000 bond.

To get this right, you would need to compare Apple's market cap against Singapore's market cap. Singapore's market cap would include the market value of all publicly traded shares in Singapore companies, all the shares in privately held companies, all of its real estate, its housing stock and other fixed assets. Then you would have to add in the intangibles such as intellectual property and so on. You would have to subtract the debt, but even so, if Singapore wanted to, it could have an Apple for lunch.
posted by storybored at 11:52 AM on September 19, 2011 [5 favorites]

So I assume those Foxconn workers should be receiving a bonus for their contribution to the bottom line any day now...
posted by any major dude at 12:30 PM on September 19, 2011

Hey Splunge I know a guy in my dorm that can help with your um, investment portfolio.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 12:40 PM on September 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

I can't believe I"m the first to say it...

BUBBLE

The stock valuation is $340 Billion, according to the fine article... but if even half of the Apple stock holders sold, the price would crash before they got out... so obviously it's not worth 1/2 of the valuation.... Price * Number of shares is not a good estimate of the actual assets of a company.

According to the 2010 10K filing (warning, PDF) their total Share Holder equity is $47.8 Billion... a far cry short of 340 Billion.

Furthermore, $30.8 Billion of that is held by foreign subsidiaries... which means at only $17 Billion of their equity is within the US.

That means that every 20 dollars of stock is worth 1 dollar of actual US assets, and possibly $1.81 elsewhere.

Not a good deal.
posted by MikeWarot at 1:12 PM on September 19, 2011 [2 favorites]

As a person without a horse in this eternal fight, I, perhaps unfairly, lump all my Apple irritation together with all these 'apple sux' comments into one big annoying lump of Apple-based annoyance.

Just wait until you try the new 'apple sux' comment aggregator iNnoyance!
posted by davejay at 1:33 PM on September 19, 2011

Wow. Impressive list for Apple, but will be difficult to maintain without Steve Jobs.
posted by CherrySoda at 1:33 PM on September 19, 2011

Wow, if you sold all of Apple, you could buy 0.02 National Debt!

Ok. I need you, Apple, and 49 of your pals that are as rich as you.

We're probably not going to solve the debt crisis. But when it involves fleecing the rich...the majority of the people (us, middleclass who are getting less and less middleclass by the day), will have no problem taking away the rights of these corporation-people...one day.

I mean 9/11 made it really easy to take many people's liberties away. Just you wait till pickup truck ownership gets to really low levels.

Things will change REALLY fast.
posted by hal_c_on at 2:18 PM on September 19, 2011

Apple Stock Hits New High, No. 1 In Market Cap.
posted by ericb at 2:43 PM on September 19, 2011

Apple Stock Hits New High, No. 1 In Market Cap.

Right.... which is what we've all been talking about. Apple passed Exxon a couple months ago, maybe they bounced back and forth a bit, I don't know.
posted by delmoi at 3:15 PM on September 19, 2011

Just wait until you try the new 'apple sux' comment aggregator iNnoyance!

I thought it was called iMeFi?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:47 PM on September 19, 2011

The post-Jobs era: Tim Cook brings philanthropy back to Apple
posted by homunculus at 4:52 PM on September 19, 2011

CSS3 supports embedded fonts. Case closed. Anyone using any other method is doing it wrong. You can embed just about any kind of font type, including SVG and OTF. You can convert to any of these formats using the free online font converter. Here's a CSS example:

@font-face {
  font-family: "Blah";
  src: url("blah.eot");
}
@font-face {
  font-family: "Blah";
  src: local("Blah"),
      url("blah.ttf")  format("truetype"),
      url("blah.woff") format("woff"),
      url("blah.otf")  format("opentype"),
      url("blah.svg")  format("svg");
}

To use, just refer to the font by name (e.g. "font-family: 'Blah', 'Arial', 'Helvetica', sans-serif;")

At least Cufon seems slightly better than the old method that I remember being very popular (sIFR), which was actually substituting text with fucking Flash.

Ah, sIFR. That brings up some awesome memories of being right.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:42 PM on September 19, 2011 [2 favorites]

MikeWarot: "The stock valuation is $340 Billion, according to the fine article... but if even half of the Apple stock holders sold, the price would crash before they got out... so obviously it's not worth 1/2 of the valuation.... Price * Number of shares is not a good estimate of the actual assets of a company."

While there very well could be evidence of a bubble, you're confusing market cap with book value. As has been mentioned before, Apple's market cap represents book value plus expected future earnings. Obviously if society liquidated Apple's assets and closed the company to buy Things Apple Is Worth More Than, it would fail dramatically. The sum is greater than the whole, you see.

But from shareholder's perspective, you want to maximize earnings:equity. They seem to be doing a good job, sitting at 41.99%. If you look at price:earnings, it's a very nice 16:1. It would only take you 16 years to recover your investment if you bought all of Apple and it continued to earn over that time span, which is fairly quick. These are not signs of a valuation bubble.

I suppose they could be cooking the books, but that's not an argument you've yet made. Or perhaps you can argue that sales will trail off, but a recent survey said 30 percent of existing iphone users were looking to upgrade to the iPhone 5. It appears the magic of cell phone billing subsidies is fueling Apple's growth, and if the T-Mo/ATT merger is allowed to complete I don't see market forces ever ending that magic. Maybe a patent portfolio comes along and mugs them, but who knows which way that whole mess will go.

So as best I can figure, this isn't a bubble. Even though I'd really like it to be.
posted by pwnguin at 7:57 AM on September 20, 2011

Apple is too big for the Dow Jones Industrial Average
posted by homunculus at 8:43 PM on September 21, 2011

Massachusetts Attorney General, Victim of an iTunes Scam, Says She'll Demand Answers
posted by homunculus at 8:48 PM on September 21, 2011