Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: The Tectonic Shift in Tech (Final)

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NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- "Why didn't technology stocks take off today," a puzzled Jim Cramer asked the viewers of his "Mad Money" TV show Monday.

With their huge revenue and earnings per share growth, tech stocks should have rallied big today, but instead, they were stuck in the mud, he said.

Cramer said to truly understand what's going on in the tech world, one must take a look back at history. He said the world today is divided between Apple (AAPL), a stock which Cramer owns for his charitable trust, Action Alerts PLUS, and non-Apple stocks, much like it was divided between IBM (IBM) and non-IBM stocks in the 1980's.

Cramer explained that in the 1980's, all of the growth was in mainframes, and that meant IBM was the stock to own. But along came mini computers, and stocks like Data General and Wang, quickly garnered all the attention.

No sooner did they jump on stage before Intel (INTC), another Action Alerts PLUS name, and Microsoft (MSFT) dominated the landscape and ushered in the PC age.

And so the cycle went through Google (GOOG) and the Internet stocks, and now onto Apple and the smartphone age.

Cramer said no one wants to pay up for Intel's or Microsoft's earnings anymore, when Apple has all the growth. He said these "old" tech stocks are now deemed as cyclical stocks, and not growth companies, anymore. "Apple has become the defacto king of tech," said Cramer, as rivals like Nokia (NOK) have lost two-thirds their value since the iPhone debuted in 2007.

In the market's eyes, Apple, and its derivative plays like Cirrus Logic (CRUS) and Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), have the mindshare, and market share, at least for now.