Apple And Amazon: Nothing In Common

Apple’s (AAPL) quarterly results were more than impressive. The company posted revenue of $5.26 billion and net quarterly profit of $770 million. This compared to revenue of $4.36 billion and net quarterly profit of $410 million in the same quarter a year ago.

And, Apple analysts think it will get even better: "The iPhone has the potential to be even bigger than the iPod," says Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray. "The cellphone market is gigantic."

But, Apple’s stock closed yesterday at $98.84. Apple’s close after announcing its previous quarter was $97.10. The improvement was less than 2%.

Over that same period, Amazon’s (AMZN) stock is up 70%. Amazon had a good quarter, too. Net went from $51 million in the year-go quarter to $111 million this year on revenue of just over $3 billion.

How can the market’s reaction be so different?

The answer may be so simple as no one expected Amazon to do anything special. Jeff Bezos has been criticized for his company’s high spending on marketing and tech infrastructure and his lack of focus on a small set of businesses. He has everything from books to movie downloads to an out-source business for companies that want to use Amazon’s tech platform.

Apple, on the other hand, lives in the land of great expectations. Steve Jobs is a genius. The iPod is one of the great consumer electronics successes of all time. Mac sales are surging. And, the iPhone is going to end up dominating the handset market.

No matter what analysts say about Apple, Wall St. was disappointed in the results. Otherwise the stock price would not be flat over the last three months. Perhaps it is concern about Jobs role in Apple’s option grants or doubts about the iPhone.

But, at least for now, it is Amazon that is the star and not Apple.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.