It was only about a year ago, that Apple passed Microsoft in the market cap segment.  To be expected, right?  Surely Apple couldn't overtake Microsoft in revenue right?  Wrong.  Apple did just that this past October.  Apple added another feather in its financial cap today after Microsoft released their Q3 2011 results.  Apple has now topped Microsoft in profits, too.

Microsoft's numbers were able to beat analysts' expectations, but their $5.23 billion net income wasn't enough to top Apple, who reported a net income of $5.99 billion last quarter.

For those playing the home game, last October, while Apple had pulled ahead in revenue, the profit differential was still about $1.1 billion, leaning Microsoft's way.  Last quarter, Apple cut the gap to about $600 million.  Now it's $700 million in Apple's favor - a $1.3 billion change in just one quarter!  With new Apple products coming down the pipeline, and the iPad 2 still in high demand, one would think that difference won't change anytime soon.

Then in the revenue category, Apple now holds an advantage of about $8 billion - $24.6 billion to $16.43 billion.  Finally in market cap, Apple is ahead $100 billion - $318.45 billion to $224.43 billion.

via TechCrunch

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