Apple Still Leads Microsoft In Market Cap By $26B

Despite a recent report, Apple still leads Microsoft in market capitalization by $26 billion.

According to 9to5Mac, changes in outstanding share counts mean Microsoft did not pass Apple in market cap as the site previously reported, and other news outlets continue to report. Apple’s market cap is $817.6 billion, compared to Microsoft’s $791 billion.

Last month, Microsoft edged out Amazon to become the second most valuable tech firm in the country.

In the meantime, Apple has shown signs of struggle. Just last week, the company officially cut production orders for its flagship iPhone. And not on one model, but on all three new models announced in September.

The issue seems to be lower than expected demand for the new generations of iPhones combined with three different models all hitting the market at once, making it difficult to predict the number of components and handsets that will be necessary to satisfy consumer demand. The reported production cut follows an earnings report that saw Apple disappoint its investors and offer up a lower than expected sales forecast for Q4, generally its strongest sales period of the year. That forecast led some to speculate on the possibility of weaker than expected iPhone sales.

And in May, an analyst predicted that Apple’s stocks will slump 6 percent over the next 12 months due to average selling prices for iPhones, as well as soft demand for iPhone X.

“iPhone volumes are not deteriorating, though iPhone X remains uninspiring,” analyst Jeffrey Kvaal said in a note to clients. “Apple guidance implied third fiscal-quarter iPhone unit volumes that were better than feared. We do not believe, however, sell through has meaningfully improved.”

Kvaal kept his neutral rating on Apple stocks, adding that a decline in phone upgrades has played a major factor in the iPhone X‘s disappointing sales. In fact, the average upgrade rate at major U.S. telecommunication companies fell to 5.3 percent in the first quarter of the calendar year.