Steve Jobs may no longer be introducing new, altering devices into the market, but Apple has already built itself a solid foundation to continue its success into the future. (Photo : REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov )
Monday was a good day for Apple. Led by iPhone and iPad speculations, the company's stock gained more than $17 per share and its market value stood at over $623 billion when the market closed. This meant Apple shattered a previous record held by Microsoft back in 1999 for "most valuable company of all time." Despite its fall on Tuesday, there is no reason to believe that Apple will give up the throne anytime soon.
Like Us on Facebook
On December 30,1999, Microsoft was valued at $618.9 billion, according to S&P senior analyst, Howard Silverblatt. This was at the height of the dot-com bubble, and after it burst, Microsoft took a hit.
But Apple is not sitting on top of a bubble as fragile as the one in 1999. The reason Apple's stock has been surging upwards lately is due to the fact that everybody, and I mean everybody, seems to be excited about the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini.
Enormous sales figures have already been predicted, and many consumers are trading in old handsets as they wait the iPhone 5 release. With an iPad Mini, Apple only opens up an entire new market to conquer for themselves: the smaller, budget-tablet market that is currently dominated by Google's Nexus 7 tablet and the Amazon Kindle Fire. The iPad brand alone will ensure it a certain level of success.
There is also, quite simply, no other product on the market that can take attention away from the iPhone and iPad brand. Given that Apple does deliver quality products, and unless there is some major PR disaster or recall, then the fact remains that the iPhone and iPad will drive Apple to record profits.
So unlike Microsoft, Apple is capitalizing on something concrete that they can put in consumers' hands. Their handsets and tablets are a worldwide phenomenon, and have the ability to push Apple's stock as high as $900, according to Jeffries analyst Peter Misek.
However, if inflation is taken into account, then Microsoft still holds the crown, with an adjusted value of $856 billion, according to Columbia Journalism Review. But if things continue the way are going, overtaking that number doesn't seem out of Apple's reach either,
