谷歌Vs.苹果：股民该买谁？

    关于谷歌（Google）和苹果（Apple）之间的论战从未如此激烈过。自从两家公司2007年占据了统治地位之后，我们已经看到不计其数的投资者、记者和分析师分立两派，对这两家科技巨头进行了几乎全方位的比较。

    不过说到投资，难道还有争论的必要吗？答案很简单：让数字来说话。财务状况、公司基础、估值……苹果在这些方面占尽上风。任何头脑冷静的投资者在选择目标时都会更倾向于苹果，而不是谷歌。尤其是谷歌的股价曾经飙升至770美元，结果随之发布的财报却远低预期，让人大跌眼镜。

    不论是公司业绩，还是股市表现，苹果都要优于谷歌，而且这种优势还将继续保持下去。究其缘由是因为苹果的市场规模大于谷歌。智能手机市场的规模远大于网络广告市场，而苹果已经逐渐成为智能手机领域毫无争议的领头羊。相较之下，谷歌的主要收入依然来自于网络广告，那仅仅是个不足十亿美元的市场；而苹果运作的市场，其价值高达万亿美元。因此，谷歌的上升潜力最多也不过是苹果的一个零头。

    想要知道苹果的核心运作市场究竟有多大，不妨看看这组数据：苹果2007年推出iPhone之前，谷歌的净收益是42亿美元，高于苹果的35亿美元。不过随着iPhone的火爆问世，苹果不仅在收入和净收益上超越谷歌，实际上，在整个股市中，已经没有任何一个公司的纳斯达克100指数能与它媲美了。

    The Google versus Apple debate has never been more vibrant. Ever since both companies rose to dominance in 2007, we've seen countless investors, journalists and analysts take opposing sides on virtually every aspect of this war between the tech titans.

    But is there really a debate when it comes to investing? The short answer: Not based on the numbers there isn't. The financials, fundamentals, and valuation continue to fall squarely in Apple's corner. Any level-headed investor would buy Apple over Google today, especially in light of Google's recent unjustified parabolic rally to $770 a share just before it reported an epic miss on earnings.

    The reason Apple has outperformed and will continue to outperform Google both on the earnings frontand in terms of the stock performance comes down to the simple fact that Apple operates in a substantially larger market than Google. The smartphone industry is a much larger beast than the online ad market, and Apple is becoming an increasingly dominant player within that space. Google, which continues to derive a large majority of its revenues from online ads, operates in a low billion-dollar market while Apple operates in a trillion-dollar market. Google's maximum upside potential is only a mere fraction of Apple's maximum upside potential.

    Just to get a sense of how much larger Apple's core operating market is consider that before the inaugural launch of the iPhone in 2007, Google reported $4.2 billion in net income, more than the $3.5 billion Apple (AAPL) reported that year. However, as the iPhone exploded in popularity, Apple not only surpassed Google (GOOG) in both revenue and net income, it actually surpassed every single company on the entire NASDAQ-100.