Who cares if Alphabet is worth more than Apple?

In case you haven’t been following the Alphabet vs. Apple stock price drama, Alphabet briefly surpassed Apple’s market value. And this has led to a ton of click-bait media stories about how notable such a change in market value is and what it means for Apple.

Jeremy Owens reports for MarketWatch:

Apple Inc. brought in more revenue in the final three months of 2015 than Alphabet Inc. did the entire year. Ditto on profit, with Apple reporting net income of $18.4 billion in the fourth quarter while Google’s parent company had earnings of $16.4 billion for the entire year.

So why does Alphabet look like it will overtake Apple as the world’s most valuable company after a post-earnings bump Monday?

While Apple has posted phenomenal profit and revenue thanks to the iPhone, the company now seems to be transitioning from a high-growth tech stock to a value stock. Alphabet, meanwhile, is still growing at a fast rate.

Alphabet’s “Other Bets,” broken out in Monday’s earnings report for the first time, are another big reason for investor optimism. The potential for future big businesses is also another strike against Apple.

Investors will trust Page and Co. to make these big bets because they have paid off in the past , most notably in the form of YouTube, which Google acquired a decade ago for less than $2 billion. Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat credited the online video network, along with advances in mobile advertising revenue, for Google’s revenue gains in the fourth quarter.

In short, Google’s current growth and potential for more in the near term seems more realistic to Wall Street at this juncture. That could change quickly, however, if Apple pulls out of its current growth plateau.

More at MarketWatch

But does anybody besides Wall Street analysts and journalists really care about this? I certainly don’t, the only things that matter to me are Apple’s products. Stock prices go up and down all the time, and I’m not going to switch to Android and dump my iPhone just because Alphabet had a higher market cap than Apple temporarily. And I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that way.

You wouldn’t know that though by the ongoing media chatter about the two companies respective stock prices. Alphabet surpassing Apple fits neatly into the usual “Apple is doomed” narrative that is designed to generate click-bait headlines and thus generate lots of ad revenue for media sites across the web.

Really, it amazes me that some people are so obsessed with such an arbitrary distinction as market cap when it comes to Alphabet and Apple. As if Apple’s customers are suddenly going to stop buying iPhones, iPads or any of its other products and services simply because Wall Street decides to favor one company or the other with a higher stock price. I doubt most of Apple’s customers pay any attention to such things.

As usual I just try to tune out all of this nonsense as I continue to enjoy my iMac, iPhone and iPad, as well as all of Apple’s services. Wall Street is utterly irrelevant to me as a user of Apple’s products, so I just ignore all of their blather and the inane “Apple is doomed” garbage that is pushed so hard by the presstitutes in the media.

Apple and all of its products are doing just fine, thank you very much.

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