Apple is no longer the world's most valuable company
Exxon Mobile has retaken the lead from the most valuable tech company. This morning in early trading, Exxon Mobile's market cap was $353.60 billion compared to $350.45 billion for Apple. Update: Apple almost caught Exxon at day's end. Exxon closed with valuation of $350.07 billion and Apple $349.50 billion.
On August 9, Apple and Exxon Mobile played a cat-and-mouse chase for largest market capitalization. Apple passed Exxon the next day and held the lead to close -- Apple's market cap was $337.17 billion, compared to Exxon Mobile's $330.77 billion. But Apple's gains came more because of Exxon's losses. Today, with both stocks up in early trading, the energy giant pulled away from the maker of the Jesus phone -- er, iPhone.
Betanews readers offered mixed reaction to Apple passing Exxon two days ago. "Its official I do not care who has the most money", Qui-gon Jinn writes. Hector Macias observes that Apple is "still a minority in the PC world, I dont give a damn for stupid profit of companies, I care about their products, and Apple continues to be crap".
By the way, that was a surprisingly common sentiment among commenters, and the responses both for and against Apple unusually heated -- even for the typical rowdiness seen in Betanews comments.
"CrApple is bigger than who?" asks sm00ter. "In market cap maybe, but they are a pimple on the butt of technology in every 'market'except tablets (and lets be clear, on there way to being a pimple in that market as well)".
InfoDave responded: "Apple's products are, for the most part, not crap. You may not like them, but they are not crap. Apple has been rated highly by many independent sources. Do not dismiss Apple as a minority. Macintosh may be a minority to the PC market, but Apple is bigger than Intel and Microsoft combined. Apple is bigger than Microsoft, HP and Dell combined, with enough left over to add EMC".
Will Apple retake the crown from Exxon. Does it matter?
"Oil is gold, and will be for a very long time", Kevin Baron comments. "Apple has done great in recent years. However, the future is always uncertain...Exxon is a different beast altogether. Oil is a huge money maker. While both Apple and Exxon have similar market cap, net income is a totally different story. Exxon took home over $30 billion last year, compared to Apple's 6 billion. Oil has very little overhead compared to just about everything else. Fifty years from now Exxon will still be a lion. That isn't a given for Apple, or anyone else for that matter".