I’m feeling really good today, everyone.

Before I reveal why, I’d like you take you back to last year, when we at Pro Trader Today published the following:

Apple’s quarterly earnings are more than the subsequent eight companies combined. Its $750 billion market cap is equal to the combined market caps of the bottom 106 companies of the S&P 500…

Let’s say, hypothetically, Apple continues the 20% growth it’s experienced every year for the past decade.  

If that remains the case, then next year Apple’s market cap will reach $900 billion.

The following year: 1.08 trillion

…1.24 trillion.

…1.48 trillion, and so on.

Apple will have to maintain $200 billion growth annually, but if they manage to do so, they will be worth over $2 trillion by 2022.

At that point, the company could afford to literally buy the earth at a rate of $10,000 per square mile.

They could afford to write a check for $18 to every person who has ever lived.

This all sounds great for Apple, except for the fact that it’s basically impossible. Unless the company develops a groundbreaking new product (maybe the iTimeMachine, iMindReader, iClone?), growth at those rates is not sustainable.

…the company’s growth to slow to 4% by next year.

…to sustain the kind of growth Apple has experienced in the past decade, they “would have to sell an iPhone to every man, woman, child, animal, and rock on the planet.”

…It might seem dramatic, but there will come a point when the market is completely saturated with Apple products and services, therefore closing the floodgates on the company’s current source of growth.

…It will be especially difficult for Apple to maintain its historic rates of growth with other tech companies biting at its heels. Android phone sales are starting to equal those of the iPhone. While Apple is focused solely on a line of increasingly similar devices, other companies are innovating and pushing boundaries into other technology sectors. (In some ways, creating entirely new tech industries)

…We could be wrong. Someone could very well reference this article in the future as they write about Apple’s $5 trillion market cap. Apple could launch a fully-functional autonomous car next month, and experience a repeat of their late-1990s renaissance.

But, I don’t think so.

*Cue maniacal laughter*

That’s right, everyone. We called it.

In case you haven’t heard… Google’s parent company, Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG), opened with a market cap of $547.1 billion on Tuesday of this week, surpassing Apple’s $529.3 billion.

This is the first time in six years that Google has passed Apple in value, making Alphabet the world’s largest publicly traded company. 

Coincidentally, the last time Google reigned supreme was in 2010, when one-third of Apple’s revenue was dependent on the Mac. When Mac sales suffered, so did the company as a whole.

Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. — Albert Einstein

Now, two-thirds of Apple’s revenue is dependent on the iPhone. As we mentioned before, it’s just not sustainable. Apple is still a massive business, but sales have struggled over the past year, and it appears that the iPhone’s heyday is in the distant past.

Fortunately, while Apple is busy figuring out new ways to trick people out of realizing they’ve been re-buying the same phone for the past 10 years, Alphabet is proving that magic is real.

Aside from Google proper, the parent company has more than a handful of other departments. Google X is a semi-secret (and super sci-fi) division. Larry Page encourages researchers and developers at Google X to “address a problem that affects millions or billions of people, utilize a radical solution… use technologies that are obtainable within the near future.”

He calls these ideas “moonshots.”

With the tagline, “We like epic shit,” Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects Group just revealed Project Jacquard, which merges technology and textiles. Google ATAP is working on customizable smartphones, data security, and other groundbreaking “moonshots.” Google employees call themselves dreamers, believers, and pirates, and they work to improve the world.

Here is a list of just some of the projects and products that Alphabet has up its sleeve (in no particular order):

AdWords

AdSense

Google Chrome

Gmail

Google Maps

Google Books

Google Drive

Android, Android M

Google+

GoogleWallet

ChromeCast

Google Now

Google.org
(philanthropy project addressing energy and the environment)

Android Wear

Nest

Jump

Self-Driving Car

Project Wing
(drone delivery services)

Project ARA

Project Tango

Project Loon

Project Vault

Project Abacus

Project Soli

Project Jacquard

Google Glass

Driverless Vehicles

Acquisition of Makani Power

Smart Contact Lenses
(able to measure glucose in diabetes patients)

Lift Labs

Baseline Study
(genomics and health data tracking)

Nanoparticles, synthetic skin, disease detection

Acquisition of Boston Dynamics

Acquisition of Gecko Design

Investments in SpaceX

Magic Leap

DNAnexus

Rani Therapeutics

SynapDx

Transcriptic

One Medical Group

Calico
(to combat aging and outsmart death)

Even better than Alphabet’s diverse range of projects are the sales outlooks. Alphabet already predicted 15% growth throughout 2016, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that gets increased in the wake of such impressive Q4 performance. Google’s digital ad business is so profitable that Alphabet can lose more than $1 billion on risky ventures… and shrug.

Apple, on the other hand, expects a fall in sales of more than 2%.

I will admit that Apple is working with more than double Alphabet’s cash at the moment — $216 billion vs. $73 billion.

To paraphrase USA Today: Apple has the cash, but Alphabet has the mojo.

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