As I sit here typing out this post on my MacBook, occasionally running a question by Siri on my iPhone just for the heck of it, I can’t help but notice I’ve been blindsided by the Apple lifestyle… and I don’t seem to mind a bit. An iPod sits in my car, next to the two iPod shuffles that I take on the mountain when I ride, and I’m long Apple stock. My old HTC Incredible smartphone sits in a box, long forgotten. And I’m certainly not the only one to completely buy into the way of life that Steve Jobs envisioned; the iPhone 4s broke Apple sales records by 68% which, despite a very limited addition of new features, makes it the most successful product the company has ever released.
So how can anyone expect Google, with their scattered list of product endeavors and seemingly patchworked business model, to compete with this pre-packaged, sleek lifestyle that Jobs infuses into all his products? By looking at the numbers..
“Android is, quite simply, mind-boggling. 700,000 phones are lit up every day. And I’m pleased to announce 250 million Android devices in total, up 50 million since our last announcement just in November. In just 2 days over the holiday weekend, 3.7 million Androids were activated. And today, we’re announcing over 11 billion downloads from Android markets.”
“Google website revenue was up, in fact just shy of 30% year-over-year to $7.3 billion and 8% quarter-over-quarter with strength across most major geographies and verticals. Our Google Network revenue was up 15% year-over-year to $2.9 billion and 11% quarter-over-quarter.”
“Our other revenue was up 50% year-over-year to $410 million and 6% quarter-over-quarter. Our global aggregate paid click growth was very strong, up 34% year-over-year and 17% quarter-over-quarter. Our aggregate cost of click growth was down 8% year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter.”
For a more in-depth look see Zerohedge’s article here: Once Again, Market Action Group Think Fails To Comprehend Google’s Valuation | ZeroHedge.