Apple Closes As The Most Valuable Company In the World

Reach9 · Aug 10, 2011

I believe we'll be seeing Apple plateau as the first Trillion dollar company and will probably go through a period of growth and some downturn in the future. There will be a time when Apple stops growing, its the law of businesses. But that plateau won't be for a while.

Congrats Apple! Considering the fact that they nearly went bankrupt a decade ago.

samcraig · Aug 10, 2011

While it might be nice to celebrate this milestone.. Personally - it's hard to celebrate when the economy is in the crapper and there are so many bigger issues.

It's like the expression - in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.

Not to diminish Apple's standing. It's just hard to "celebrate" things like this when the market is down over 500 points (again) today.

Perspective.

dgree03 · Aug 10, 2011

All that tells me is how razor thin Oil Profit margins are!

Starflyer · Aug 10, 2011

Surely said:
I wonder how much more profit/revenue Apple would make if Apple was given the same tax incentives that oil companies are given....

I wonder how much more profit/revenue XOM would make if their profit margin was higher than 8.5%?

DTphonehome · Aug 10, 2011

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Apple's growth potential is what's truly astounding. They post amazing numbers with just a minuscule portion of the overall market. They can easily double market share in iPhones and iPads in china alone, and the upside for PCs in the US and Europe is tremendous.

Spoony · Aug 10, 2011

Step 1: Buy iPad on launch day
Step 2: buy Apple Stock on same day
Step 3: Watch Apple stock go up
Step 4: Sell Apple stock 12 months later

= Free iPad

Rinse and Repeat. Best way to get Apple Products for Free.

Everyone spends enough time on this board to know as much if not more than savy analysts.

If you are daring enough. Same process but buy the Apple options.
= free ipad, free macbook pro and free iphone.

The stock is still cheap right now. Once the dust settles buy some shares.

Pentad · Aug 10, 2011

addicted44 said:
Actually, yes they do...

I wish people understood a little bit about basic economics before spouting off righteous crap.

You are generally correct but let me point out that Apple is no Microsoft in terms of feeding the ecosystem. During the 90s and 00's, more companies -more PEOPLE - benefitted from Microsoft being the king of technology than Apple.

There was a great article -I think- in the WSJ about how the economics of Apple is much different -shall I say bitter- than when Microsoft was at the top of their game. Microsoft was not afraid of spreading the wealth around because it only helped them become larger, stronger, and, well, richer.

Apple does not play that way and they make sure very few people truly profit from their success.

So before you become any more cheeky with your 'I wish people' talk, let's be clear on how much 'help' Apple is giving the rest of the industry - very little.

Lastly, look at the number of employees Microsoft has made into millionaires compared to Apple.

In the end, Apple just can't compare...

Preparing to be downgraded in 3... 2... 1...
-P

Reach9 · Aug 10, 2011

Spoony said:
Step 1: Buy iPad on launch day
Step 2: buy Apple Stock on same day
Step 3: Watch Apple stock go up
Step 4: Sell Apple stock 12 months later

= Free iPad

Rinse and Repeat. Best way to get Apple Products for Free.

Everyone spends enough time on this board to know as much if not more than savy analysts.

If you are daring enough. Same process but buy the Apple options.
= free ipad, free macbook pro and free iphone.

The stock is still cheap right now. Once the dust settles buy some shares.

The stock is still cheap right now, really? How much is it?

accessoriesguy · Aug 10, 2011

Man9z0r said:
While technology is only getting bigger and bigger.

you mean smaller and smaller in size!

skoorbevad · Aug 10, 2011

That's quite impressive and an enormous number.

However Market Cap is not a valid indicator of a company's direct worth. All it reflects is (number of outstanding shares) * (share price).

It doesn't reflect a multitude of other factors. Industry, speculation, economy, etc. If suddenly tomorrow some GigantoCorp emerged and announced that it would be acquiring either Apple or Exxon-Mobil, undoubtedly Exxon-Mobil would fetch a considerably higher price tag, given that what they deal in spins humanity on every facet.

Not that Apple would be a cheap buy, but iGadgets vs. Crude Oil isn't a comparison, really.

Sjhonny · Aug 10, 2011

Ow come on, what's this bllsht? We're facing the biggest international economical crisis in years, and we're still talking about how Apple crashes somewhat less then that oil company? That's driving trough a red light with your eyes closed.

Not that we should be all negative, but this is just total non information for an Apple product rumors site.

Jerome Morrow · Aug 10, 2011

Pentad said:
Lastly, look at the number of employees Microsoft has made into millionaires compared to Apple.

Must be hordes of stupid underpaid people working at Apple then, right? Obviously they are brainwashed by Steve himself, i mean how could they not be ...

Spoony · Aug 10, 2011

Reach9 said:
The stock is still cheap right now, really? How much is it?

Cheap in terms of the Price to Earnings metric not in terms of dollar amount.

Dollar amount it's expensive and it's tough to accumulate a lot of shares.

If you have $5,000 sitting around a 20% gain which is not unlikley over the next 12 months is 1,000 bucks.

= free iPad.

People thought AAPL was expensive at 200 bucks a share which was the price when Steve gave the keynote for the iPad. It doubled since the iPad was shown to the public.

It's all about China. Just know China will drive the stock's growth. That and overall smartphone adoption.

*LTD* · Aug 10, 2011

GoodWatch said:
That's all very nice but what will it bring to humble users like me?

More great products. What else were you expecting??

GoodWatch said:
I don't own Apple stock, just buy their stuff. It's about time Apple starts doing some good with that $76 billion stock pile of cash. Good for humanity, expensive trinkets don't fill children's empty bellies.

Apple doesn't run a charity. If you want to contribute to children's' bellies being filled, go here:

http://www.charitywatch.org/hottopics/africa_crises.html

If you want to contribute to *your own* children's' bellies being filled, go here:

http://www.sharebuilder.com/

But first go here:

http://www.investopedia.com/university/stocks/stocks5.asp

BaldiMac · Aug 10, 2011

skoorbevad said:
That's quite impressive and an enormous number.

However Market Cap is not a valid indicator of a company's direct worth. All it reflects is (number of outstanding shares) * (share price).

It doesn't reflect a multitude of other factors. Industry, speculation, economy, etc. If suddenly tomorrow some GigantoCorp emerged and announced that it would be acquiring either Apple or Exxon-Mobil, undoubtedly Exxon-Mobil would fetch a considerably higher price tag, given that what they deal in spins humanity on every facet.

Not that Apple would be a cheap buy, but iGadgets vs. Crude Oil isn't a comparison, really.

Ummm... share price * number of shares is exactly how much it would cost to purchase the entire company at that moment.

Of course, news of an acquisition would likely affect share price.

lord patton · Aug 10, 2011

sbradfo said:
at the Gartner Symposium and ITxpo97 here today, the CEO of competitor Dell Computer added his voice to the chorus when asked what could be done to fix the Mac maker. His solution was a drastic one.

"What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders," Michael Dell said before a crowd of several thousand IT executives.

Steve J. .... Mike Dell ?
Mike D. ... yes
Steve J. .... suck it !!

Exactly. Time for steve to send mike dell a picture of his middle finger.

THX1139 · Aug 10, 2011

While interesting to a point, I'm wondering if MacRumors is going to be posting Apple valuation on a daily basis. I could care less about Apple stock, I'm more interested in their product.

addicted44 · Aug 10, 2011

Pentad said:
You are generally correct but let me point out that Apple is no Microsoft in terms of feeding the ecosystem. During the 90s and 00's, more companies -more PEOPLE - benefitted from Microsoft being the king of technology than Apple.

There was a great article -I think- in the WSJ about how the economics of Apple is much different -shall I say bitter- than when Microsoft was at the top of their game. Microsoft was not afraid of spreading the wealth around because it only helped them become larger, stronger, and, well, richer.

Apple does not play that way and they make sure very few people truly profit from their success.

So before you become any more cheeky with your 'I wish people' talk, let's be clear on how much 'help' Apple is giving the rest of the industry - very little.

Lastly, look at the number of employees Microsoft has made into millionaires compared to Apple.

In the end, Apple just can't compare...

Preparing to be downgraded in 3... 2... 1...
-P

There is no contradiction in saying "Apple feeds more empty stomachs than many other entities" and "Microsoft fed (still does) more empty stomachs than Apple". I never even mentioned MS in my rant.

However much less Apple "spreads the wealth" than MS (and I agree with you on that part...MS spawned off far more adjunct businesses than Apple), in absolute numbers Apple is still huge. Just as a small example, Foxconn, whose biggest client (and a very significant percentage) is Apple, employs more than half a million people all by itself.

Mattie Num Nums · Aug 10, 2011

FriarNurgle said:
Wish I made enough money to afford investments.

If you have cash in your pocket you can invest it. Open up a ROTH IRA and start putting money in it.

Spoony said:
Step 1: Buy iPad on launch day
Step 2: buy Apple Stock on same day
Step 3: Watch Apple stock go up
Step 4: Sell Apple stock 12 months later

= Free iPad

Rinse and Repeat. Best way to get Apple Products for Free.

Everyone spends enough time on this board to know as much if not more than savy analysts.

If you are daring enough. Same process but buy the Apple options.
= free ipad, free macbook pro and free iphone.

The stock is still cheap right now. Once the dust settles buy some shares.

You forgot about paying taxes.

Erwin-Br · Aug 10, 2011

addicted44 said:
Because they have massive monopolies, minimal risks, and massive demand? This is a basic supply and demand story.

Again, spouting righteous crap without knowing financial basics, but from the other side this time...

And I bet a significantly larger number of people are calling Apple greedy (and pointing out to the $76Bn net assets) than calling oil people greedy. What they do call oil people are folks spending millions to buy political leaders so they don't have to bear the costs of the negative externalities their industry imposes on others, and spending millions to fudge basic science.

I happen to know a few people who work at Shell, and I can tell you one thing: Risks are not minimal at all. You have no idea how expensive it is to search for new oil fields, and how often their projects fail. And then I'm not even talking about having to deal with shaky governments and unstable countries.

addicted44 · Aug 10, 2011

starflyer said:
I wonder how much more profit/revenue XOM would make if their profit margin was higher than 8.5%?

Very little...they would get crushed by BP, Shell, etc...

They would largely be driven out of the market.

XOM sells a very commoditized product with little to no differentiation from its competitors (the only differentiation might be in the more exotic drilling locations, which also tend to lead to the most expensive raw material), and with huge demand.

Finally, not only do they have demand pressures, they have supply pressures, where their supply is controlled by hostile govts which would certainly demand more money if their profits started increasing.

Erwin-Br said:
I happen to know a few people who work at Shell, and I can tell you one thing: Risks are not minimal at all. You have no idea how expensive it is to search for new oil fields, and how often their projects fail. And then I'm not even talking about having to deal with shaky governments and unstable countries.

On an individual oil field basis, you are right. In the aggregate, the risks are low. Which is one reason we have seen so much consolidation in this field, and that smaller oil companies have largely disappeared. You need lots of sources of supply, to be able to withstand a shock to any one source.

vitzr · Aug 10, 2011

I knew the thousands and thousands I've spent with Apple over many years, would show up in their bottom line.

And in my stock portfolio as well.

You're Welcome Steve

Rodimus Prime · Aug 10, 2011

Erwin-Br said:
I happen to know a few people who work at Shell, and I can tell you one thing: Risks are not minimal at all. You have no idea how expensive it is to search for new oil fields, and how often their projects fail. And then I'm not even talking about having to deal with shaky governments and unstable countries.

Bingo. Any one who really knows much about the oil industry knows the risk are fairly huge. addicted does not know what he is talking about.

addicted44 said:
On an individual oil field basis, you are right. In the aggregate, the risks are low. Which is one reason we have seen so much consolidation in this field, and that smaller oil companies have largely disappeared. You need lots of sources of supply, to be able to withstand a shock to any one source.

No the risk are still huge risk. The only reason the big players rule a lot of the stuff and fund so much is they have the resources to do it. It cost huge amounts of money and they risk huge chunks as well.

On your argument Apple stuff is low risk now high reward. They are so big that they can aggregate risk is low.

Apple as a company I believe is not even in the size of the top 100 in terms of employee size, resources or physical assets.

Take away the stock value Apple does not have large amounts of assets it can sell for cash. It has a huge stock value but that is just paper and in theory can go crashing down.

Exxon stock could crash (hell all big oil) have more physical assets that Apple.

ArcaneDevice · Aug 10, 2011

Steve certainly knows how to wave his magic marketing wand!

I remember the state of the company when Gil Amelio left so it is indeed an impressive turnaround.

It's just a pity it's being built on the back of consumer gadgets and not professional workhorses.

wilhoitm · Aug 10, 2011

Sjhonny said:
Ow come on, what's this bllsht? We're facing the biggest international economical crisis in years, and we're still talking about how Apple crashes somewhat less then that oil company? That's driving trough a red light with your eyes closed.

Not that we should be all negative, but this is just total non information for an Apple product rumors site.

Mac Rumors does not just cover Apple products, they cover the entire Apple ecosystem and since Apple is a stock market leader they cover the entire industry. The rise of Apple to what it is today is very much news! :apple:

Apple Closes As The Most Valuable Company In the World

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