COMMENT: In the end, all it took was a stellar earnings report to push Apple over the line. Wall Street had been speculating for months about which company would be the first to be worth a trillion dollars, with Amazon, Alphabet and a resurgent Microsoft all making strong late runs.
It ended up being the manufacturer of the ubiquitous iPhone that claimed the prize. For a company that is less than four decades old, it was a remarkable achievement and confirmation that while it may have lost some of its old magic under CEO Tim Cook, it remains a formidable design, marketing and sales machine.
But while it was the first to hit the magic trillion figure, it is unlikely to be the last. In fact, two powerful forces are coming together to create a select group of mega-mega-caps that will dominate the global economy for decades. The network effects of the internet are creating a few vast enterprises, while the globalisation of investment means more money is pouring into a select group of firms. There may be a dozen of them by the end of the decade.
Of course, on one level, US$1 trillion in market value is just a number. With inflation and a bull market, someone was always going to get there. On another level, it symbolises both the power of the company's unique business model and the growing dominance of the American technology firms.
Apple could have easily started to fade after Steve Jobs's death. But its successes validate Cook's strategy of consolidating its upmarket, tech-savvy, exclusive brand, while also building up revenues from apps and services.