Apple’s Journey From $1 to $2 Trillion: The Market Cap Marathon

Apple is the first US company to register a market capitalisation of $2 trillion.

Apple is the first US company to register a $2 trillion market capitalisation. 

(Photo: The Quint)

Apple Inc. hit the $2 trillion market capitalisation mark on Wednesday making it the first US company to do so. The epic moment didn’t last long, however, as the company’s shares pulled back at the end of the session on 19 August bring the valuation under the $2 trillion threshold.

This momentous achievement marks the success of the Cupertino-based tech giant that has been able to weather COVID-19 blues to register growth in the third quarter of 2020.

The elusive $2 trillion market cap is more than the GDP of some developed nations such as South Korea, Russia, Canada and Italy.

The First Trillion

The journey to $1 trillion was long and arduous, not to mention Apple lost its founder Steve Jobs to cancer in October 2011 just after he resigned as the CEO of Apple.

Apple Computers, Inc. was founded on 1 April 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. It was later in 1980 that the company went public selling 4.6 million shares at $22 each.

It hit landmark achievements like the launch of Macintosh computer in 1984 and the first iPhone launch in 2007.

In March 2015, Apple replaced AT&T in the Dow 30 which is an exclusive club with names like Microsoft, Intel and Cisco. The Dow inclusion was a turning point as it is a well-known market analysis tool of stock market performance for most investors.

It was three years later that Apple registered its first $1 trillion market cap in August 2018. A lot of the success at that time was attributed to the growth in Apple Software and Services division that thrived under the leadership of Tim Cook.

Another Trillion in Just 2 Years!

What’s astonishing is that post-2018 it took Apple just two years to reach the $2 trillion mark which speaks volumes of the kind of growth Apple has seen.

Here are some of the highlights of Apple’s journey from $1 trillion to $2 trillion starting 2018. (Photo: The Quint/Shruti Mathur)

The iPhone 11 series which was launched in September 2019 has been a hit with smartphone users. As per a Counterpoint research report, the iPhone 11 was the second best-selling smartphone in 2019, just behind Apple iPhone XR, selling close to 12 million units.

Six of the top ten phones are Apple devices. (Photo: Counterpoint Research)

Also, in 2019, Apple shipped more than 30 million Apple Watch devices across the globe which made it the best-selling smartwatch. This was a 36 percent jump over 2018.

Its budget-friendly offering, the iPhone SE (2020), has also garnered good numbers and as per Counterpoint Research, it is estimated that Apple will end up selling over 15 million iPhone SE units in 2020.

What’s also been a major development for Apple this year is the company ditching Intel chipsets for the Mac. This way Apple saves up on some extra cash.

Not only has the business shown resilience against the COVID-19 pandemic, it managed to register an 11 percent growth with overall revenue of $59.7 billion and profit of $11.25 billion in Q3 2020.

It’s not just the hardware. Credit for much of Apple’s success in the last two year goes to its Software & Services division which has grown by folds. Apple is even looking to introduce a bundled subscription plan for its services at much lesser prices which is sure to get more users on its platform.

Despite the cut-throat competition, Apple has been able to register good results for itself post 2018 and we can expect this growth for Apple to continue with the launch of the next Apple iPhone scheduled for later this year.

Apple vs Indian Biggies

To give you an estimate of how big the $2 trillion figure is when you compare it to the Indian corporate sector, we took the top Indian companies with the highest market cap value to draw a comparison.

Here’s a comparison between Apple market cap and market cap of top Indian companies. (Photo: The Quint/Shruti Mathur)

As per the latest market capitalisation values on the business website Moneycontrol, as of August 2020, Reliance Industries, TATA Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever and Infosys are among the top Indian companies with the highest market cap.

Reliance Industries with a market cap of Rs 1,365,611.57 crore ie $182.8 billion is at the top of that list.

At $495.28 billion, even if you combine the total market cap of all the top 5 companies, it still isn’t even one-fourth of the current market cap of Apple Inc. That’s how big Apple is.

At $1.63 trillion, Amazon is the closest to Apple in terms of market capitalisation.