Just before the business world took a few days off at the end of December, Apple was awfully close to a world first. The company was closing in on a $3 trillion market cap valuation, which would make it the world’s fifth-largest economy, just after Germany.

Well, it’s happened. And then unhappened, just as quickly. Apple yesterday became the first company to be worth more than $3 trillion, but it also uncrossed that milestone by the end of the day.

An Apple a day

Yesterday, 3 January, was the first day of trading for the year. Apple, during the day, reached a share value of $182.88 (each), pushing it past the $3 trillion mark. But the company was unable to hang onto it. Its shares ended the day valued at $182.01 — making Apple worth a ‘mere’ $2.99 trillion at the end of trading.

This represents a massive climb in value for the company. Apple’s value has increased more than 5,800% since former CEO Steve Jobs introduced the world to the iPhone in 2007. Other companies tracked by the Standard and Poor’s 500 index have averaged a value increase of just 230% over the same period.

There’s no mistaking the influence the iPhone and the iPad have had on the company’s bottom line but current head Tim Cook has also driven revenue increases from music and video streaming. There should be a limit on how much money Apple can make but the company doesn’t seem to have found it yet. Some investors and analysts are questioning just how much longer the company that gave the world the smartphone can continue to sustain growth. It has to stop sometime — the only question is ‘when’.

Source: Reuters