[jakarta]

the difference implies that the market is assigning a higher multiple to AAPL presumably on the basis of growth. Whether that is warranted or not, I do not know.

I actually think it is more useful to look at these companies from a yield perspective. So if you take the free cash flow / enterprise value of each company you get:

10.8% for MSFT and 6% for AAPL. This is in line with what you said (MSFT producing greater earnings) but presents the data in a more readable manner I think.