They may be the ones everyone loves to hate only out with stellar returns when everyone else is doing badly. Is the normal way of events for the big four. However, this allows for them to tighten their vice-like grip on their positions, For Google who is before the DOJ on a massive antitrust case. It bodes even worse as their increased earnings are going to be difficult to talk away. From the perspective that they do not have the search market sewn up. Apple today constitutes such a large proportion of the stock market that if they did badly and their share price fell they would take the market with them.
This is a multi-faceted scenario as politics are in play regarding the power and reach that these companies have. It will be interesting to watch how it plays out.