右边的两张图是2013年苹果（Apple）的股价走势与亚马逊（Amazon）和谷歌（Google）的对比，但对比结果与下面的9张柱状图相左。

    这些柱状图是一位名为“Merckel”的读者提供给《财富》（Fortune）杂志的，使用一些较为客观的指标对三家公司进行了比较，包括现金流量、资产回报率、利润增长和已支付股息等枯燥的数据。

    这三家公司当然拥有不同的业务模式。苹果通过溢价出售高端消费品，赚取巨额利润。谷歌每笔在线广告利润微薄，但在线广告总销量数以十亿计。亚马逊正在打造一个巨型虚拟购物中心，将现有店铺（如图书、电子产品等）的利润注入新店铺。

    但股市每天要做的事就是对不同的商业模式进行定价。从Merckel的这些柱状图来看，市场似乎相信谷歌和亚马逊的增长永远没有尽头。

    至于苹果，市场还需要看到新一款轰动性的产品（财富中文网）。

    The two stock charts at right, comparing Apple's (AAPL) performance in 2013 to Amazon's (AMZN) and Google's (GOOG), tell a very different story than the nine bar charts below.

    Produced for Fortune by the reader who posts here as Merckel, the bar charts compare the three companies by more objective measures -- boring things like cash flow, return on assets, earnings growth and dividends paid.

    The three companies have different business models, of course. Apple makes big profits selling high-end consumer devices at premium prices. Google takes a tiny profit from each of billions of online ad sales. Amazon is constructing a giant virtual mall, pouring the profits from its established stores (books, electronics, etc.) into new ones.

    But putting a value on different business models is what the stock market does every day. Judging from Merckel's bar charts, what the market seems to be saying is that it believes Google and Amazon will keep growing indefinitely.

    For Apple, it will believe it when it sees the next hit product.