Apple Reaches $500B, Can now Buy Poland
Early this morning, Apple crossed the $500 billion mark in trading, setting another record high for the world's most valuable company.
This half-trillion mark doesn't come easy either. In the history of all companies ever, Apple is now only among five other moguls, Microsoft, ExxonMobil, Cisco and General Electric.
Today, none of those companies settle very close to Apple's $500 billion, invincible heels. Microsoft, Cisco and GE did it at the culmination of the tech bubble in 1999, while ExxonMobil clawed to half a trillion in 2007 with such high oil prices.
In fact, Microsoft is the only company ever to be valued over $600 billion, though today it sits at a much smaller $287 billion.
For reference, Apple's value is now larger than the gross domestic product of Poland, Belgium, Sweden, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan. That's a big deal.
And, yes, it is still growing. With new iPads in a week, new Macbooks this summer and a 4G LTE iPhone in the fall, 2012 may host the best year Apple has ever seen.
In the long term however, we don't know what the landscape will look like in five years. Is this sustainable? Probably not. Is it good for now? Sure. Is there that much more to innovate? We think that's the $500 billion dollar question.
