The Briefing: Next Week’s Tech Earnings Parade

Get ready. All five of the big tech companies—Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft—are reporting earnings next week. And just to keep us on our toes, Twitter and Pinterest are releasing their results as well. Of all the companies, the one that probably deserves the most attention is Apple.

It’s easy to overlook a reality of Apple’s financial performance amid the fanboy-led drooling over purple iPhones and beautiful iMacs, but the world’s most valuable company has been a mediocre performer when it comes to growth over the past few years. Between 2015 and 2020, Apple’s revenue grew just 17%, and its net income rose just 7.5%. And if you don’t believe that’s slow growth, consider that in the same five-year period, Alphabet’s revenue rose 143% and Microsoft’s top line expanded by 53%. And no one would say either Alphabet nor Microsoft had been rocket ships in recent years.