First Click: Apple's worth more than... everything

April 28th, 2015

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Nothing is new, not even the proclamation that nothing is new is new. Yet here I am repeating it as a premise for giving you a list of things dwarfed by Apple’s financial scale. The construct has been regenerated so many times during Apple's meteoric rise that a tumblr called Things Apple is Worth More Than was created in 2011 when Apple was only worth a mere $340 billion, or about 45 days of global oil consumption.

In 2012 Apple’s market cap exceeded $500 billion causing CNNMoney to proclaim it more valuable than Poland. You know, the country.

By 2014 Apple’s market cap hit $668 billion. CNBC was “surprised” by seven things that Apple was more valuable than including 10,000 times the worth of Kim Kardashian. 9,000 times? Not surprising. But 10,000, whoa. Later that year when Apple’s market cap surpassed $700 billion, TheStreet.com was surprised by a full ten things that Apple was bigger than including Switzerland's GDP and four Samsungs.

This morning sees Apple stock at a new record high in pre-market trading pushing its market cap above $760 billion. That’s just shy of the combined value of Microsoft (passed by Apple in 2010) and Google (passed in 2008) worth $388 billion and $389 billion, respectively. Tim Cook’s Apple is now worth twice as much as Steve Jobs’ Apple three years after his death, with enough cash to buy all 319 million Americans a $599 stainless steel Watch.

Apple is by far the most valuable company on the planet. Even Exxon Mobil pales with a market cap of $364 billion. With China's help, Apple could quickly become the world's first $1 trillion company.

Now that would be something new.

Five stories to start your day



  1. Apple's second biggest market is now China, not Europe

    This quarter the revenue generated in China passed Europe to become Apple's second biggest market after The Americas. The company reported $16.823 billion in revenue for Greater China, up 71 percent year over year. It was also the only territory to show positive growth over last quarter's blowout numbers.

  2. Watch DARPA's magic bullets change course to hit moving targets

    We already have smart guns, but DARPA has taken the next logical step — the defense agency has built smart bullets. The military agency has shown off new footage of its Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance — shortened to EXACTO rounds — that show the smart bullets maneuvering in mid-air to hit moving targets.

  3. Valve removes Steam's new paid mods in the face of criticism

    A few days after it introduced a new system in which Steam users could pay for game mods, video game developer and publisher Valve is removing the feature, in the face of widespread criticism from angry players. In a post on Steam's Workshop, Valve's Alden Kroll said the team at Valve "didn't understand exactly what we were doing" by introducing an option for mod-makers to charge for their creations, and that the company "missed the mark pretty badly."

  4. Now Tamagotchi can nag you from your Apple Watch

    If you thought you’d already succumbed to notification overload on the Apple Watch, just wait until you’re being nagged every few minutes to clean up the excrement of a pixelated blob. At least that part of the experience is authentic.

  5. LG's Urbane Android Wear watch lands in the US for $349

    The first Android Wear device that will come out of the box with Google's big new software update is now on sale in the US. Google began selling the LG Urbane on its online store today for $349. The watch comes in either a silver or a gold, and Google says new orders will leave its warehouse by Friday, May 8th.

Unique snowflake of the day

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