Apple’s market cap briefly surpasses $700 bn

Technology giant Apple Inc's market capitalisation briefly surpassed $700 billion yesterday, the first time a US company surpassed this mark.

Apple stock yesterday rose to $119.75 at the start of trading in New York, giving the California-based company a valuation of more than $702 billion.

The stock closed at $117.60, giving it a market value of $690 billion, which is still about 1.7 times bigger than the world's third-biggest company ExxonMobil's market cap of $401 billion.

This is a huge milestone for Apple's new CEO Tim Cook, who many doubted had the leadership skills of his late predecessor and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Apple, which ignited the personal computing revolution with the iconic Mac, became the most valuable company in the technology sector in May 2010 after surpassing software giant Microsoft.

With devices like the iPhone and the iPad in its portfolio, the technology giant co-founded by Jobs in 1976 is widely expected to hit the $1-trillion mark in the near future.

There has been no looking back for Apple since 2001 when the company launched the iPod, which became Apple's best-selling product having sold over one hundred million units to date.

In 2007, Apple entered the cell phones market with its iPhone, which has since become the new standard for smartphones. The company has successfully mastered the art of hype before launching a new version of the iPhone that makes consumers sit outside the stores a day before its launch.

Every new version of its iPhone has sold more than a million units in the first month of launch, a feat that is unparalleled in the technology industry.

It launched the iPad, the multi-media touch screen tablet in April 2010, which sold upward of 300,000 units on the first day of the sale, 1 million within 28 days and 3 million in 80 days in the US market alone (See: Apple sells 3 million iPads in 80 days).

However some analysts are apprehensive about Apple's future since it relies mainly on the iPhone and the iPad for a major part of its revenues.