Also, I'm not sure why you say that Apple is unlikely to maintain it's advantage in the smartphone and tablet industry. I'd say they are very likely to maintain an advantage, especially when it comes to profits. No other manufacture has an entire ecosystem in place for it's customers quite like the way Apple does (digital stores, iCloud, Retail stores, etc).
Some Miscellaneous References:
http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:AAPL&fstype=ii
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=AAPL+Key+Statistics
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/07/19Apple-Reports-Thir...
Apple does not have 76 billion in cash. It has 76 billion in cash, cash-equivalents, and long-term marketable securities. There is a significant difference.
For clarification, please see here:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/258268-debunking-the-myths-o...
This post does not constitute investment advice.
On the other hand... potato, po-tah-to?
While I'm acutely aware of the vast difference between $28 billion and $76 billion, can anyone name the largest acquisition Apple has ever completed?
More importantly, can anyone recall the amount?
Apple is one of the most acquisition-averse large companies I've ever seen. What they will do with $28 billion--let alone $76 billion--is beyond me.
No, I was not waiting to jump on someone for that, and I would hope that my response was not agressive in tone. That really was not intentional, but I apologize to jmreid if that was the case.
I actually up-voted jmreid's post (before typing my response) because he raised an extremely important point.
If I may share something? I like to keep this in mind as I move around online. With the lack of faces and tone of voice to help, I find that it is helpful to remember: http://www.paulgraham.com/randomness.html