This morning, as I returned to my office from my family summer vacation, I was greeted with an email from a good friend and fellow colleague asking if I had read the following in USA Today. To wit:

“Giddy up! The Four Horsemen of Tech — Google, Apple, Amazon, and facebook — helped push the Nasdaq to an all-time high Friday morning.

These Four Horsemen dominate the Nasdaq. They are the tech equivalent of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. Or his jockey, Victor Espinoza? He's the actual horseman after all. Either way, these four are collectively worth nearly $1.7 trillion and are expected to report sales of more than $425 billion this year.”

But here was the most interesting line in the story.

“But for now at least, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google are galloping way ahead of the rest of tech.”

So, what makes this story so interesting?

After all, technology stocks have been on a strong rise as of late. Furthermore, technology is becoming ever more embedded in our daily lives (and ultimately the economy) than ever before from “smart watches” to “smart houses.” Therefore, it makes complete sense why companies like Apple are doing so well.

However, that is only one part of the story. Ultimately, all companies, and particularly those in the technology space, are subject to business and economic cycles. More importantly, these companies, in particular, are subject to consumer demands. For example, Apple is a great company with great products and consumers love those products. However, what happens to Apple if a competitor comes out with a better product? Or, how about Facebook? Do you remember companies like Palm Computer, Blackberry, and MySpace?

Consumers are very fickle creatures, and brand loyalty will only last so long. Like the article states, while Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook are on the top of their game today, in the next 10-years it could well be companies like Xiaomi, Snapchat or others that do not even exist yet.