Both beat expectations, both turn over billions of dollars and both feature highly in those lists of megabrands that do the rounds when there isn’t much news about.
But while Apple this week declared net profits of almost $12 billion (£7.7 billion), more than Wall Street had expected, its shares were hammered.
Amazon was the belle of the ball even though the surprise about its $92 million profit is that it made anything at all.
This is a company that frustrates investors to the same degree that it contents its legion of customers. That is part of its secret.
The difference between Amazon and its fellow “A” 1000 miles down America’s Pacific coast is that there are doubts about Apple’s continued growth story. They’re probably overstated, but they’re there. About Amazon’s, there are none.
Moreover, while it would be wrong to describe Apple as a one-trick pony, its fortunes are increasingly bound to those of its iPhone, which accounts for almost two thirds of sales.
Amazon draws its revenues from multiple sources. The one that investors are currently batting their eyes at is the growing role it plays in cloud computing.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the part of its diverse businesses that was largely responsible for the unexpected profit and its development is being watched with increasing excitement by Wall Street’s scribblers
This is a company that is not only making the cloud pay, it is ruthlessly exposing its competitors, slashing prices while still making money off exploding revenues.
However, AWS is still only part of the story. Amazon’s tentacles are growing and tightening their grip.
The company that started out as a bookshop and savaged thousands of competitors, has expanded into just about every part of the retail industry.
While its grocery offering is relatively small beer, it still frightens the life out of the supermarkets, every bit as much as Aldi and Lidl.
They know that if Amazon, now worth more than even Walmart, ever started to take it seriously they would have a big problem.
If you can’t buy a product directly, you will be able to find what you want through one of the sellers on its electronic marketplace.
It is also a media company that provides content and increasingly produces its own. And it makes gadgets. Phew.
Such was the increase in Amazon’s share price in after-hours trading that hyperactive founder Jeff Bezos saw his personal wealth balloon by $7 billion.
But how worried should we be by its rise?
Now might be a good time to heat up that debate.
