Apple makes history, becomes world's first trillion-dollar company

Apple makes history, becomes world's first trillion-dollar company

NAIJA tech

Aug 2, 2018 7:45 PM

— Computing and mobile phone giant, Apple beats Amazon to landmark after its shares hit $207.05

— Apple is first public company worth $1 trillion after 42 years

— The company was founded the iPhone firm makes history

Apple has become the world’s first public company to be worth $1 trillion (£767bn).

The iPhone maker’s market value reached the figure in late morning trading in New York as its shares rose to a new record high above $207.

The stock has been rising since Tuesday when it reported better than expected results for the three months to June.

Apple beat Silicon Valley rivals such as Amazon and Microsoft to become the first to hit the $1 trillion valuation.

Since the iPhone first went on sale in 2007, Apple shares have soared by 1,100% and have jumped almost a third in the past year.

The rise is even more astonishing – 50,000% – since the company first listed in 1980. That dwarfs the 2,000% increase for the S&P 500 over the same period.

Apple traces its origins to the garage of co-founder Steve Jobs in 1976 and was initially best known for its Mac personal computers before its smartphone paved the way for the app economy.

Mr Jobs, who died in 2011 and was succeeded as chief executive by Tim Cook, oversaw the development of the iPhone, which transformed Apple’s fortunes.

In 2006 the company had sales of less than $20bn and posted profits of almost $2bn.

Last year its sales hit $229bn, with profits of $48.4bn, making it the most profitable listed US company.

PetroChina was briefly worth about $1.1 trillion after floating in Shanghai in 2007, although most of its shares were held by the Chinese government. It is now worth about $220bn.

Photo by BBC

Apple chief executive Tim Cook has remained firmly bullish, touting the company’s product pipeline and championing good sales of the iPhone X, a recently unveiled model whose $1,000 price tag analysts worried would be excessive.

Benedict Evans of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz saw strength in Apple’s tendency to do the unexpected in a way of thinking it likely inherited from Jobs.

“The tendency of so many people in tech to presume an Apple product will fail because it makes choices that they wouldn’t have made is one of Apple’s greatest competitive advantages,” Evans said in a missive fired off on Twitter.

And while online pre-orders and global product releases have whittled down the long, colorful queues at Apple shops on iPhone launch days, throngs still make pilgrimages to lay hands on devices.

“The brand still stands for quality product, great design, ease of use and a customer-first approach to technology,” analyst Milanesi said of Apple.