For quite some time now, all gazes have been on Apple as it was clear that it was going to win the race to the trillion dollar mark to become the first US company to reach that number.
On Thursday, Apple finally did it after months of speculation, when its share prices rose to $207.39, beating Amazon to the punch, who investors thought could reach the milestone first.
The rise in share prices was credited to the recent strong earnings call which surpassed the expectations of analysts. As always, much of the revenue and growth was led by the iPhone, which should come as no surprise.
In light of this, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple issued a memo to Apple employees calling it a “significant milestone” but something that they should not dwell on much. You can read the full note below which was first obtained by Reuters.
Today Apple passed a significant milestone. At our closing share price of $207.39, the stock market now values Apple at more than $1 trillion. While we have much to be proud of in this achievement, it’s not the most important measure of our success. Financial returns are simply the result of Apple’s innovation, putting our products and customers first, and always staying true to our values.
Steve founded Apple on the belief that the power of human creativity can solve even the biggest challenges – and that the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do. In today’s world, our mission is more important than ever. Our products not only create moments of surprise and delight, they empower people all around the globe to enrich their lives and the lives of others.
Just as Steve always did in moments like this, we should all look forward to Apple’s bright future and the great work we’ll do together.
Personal Thoughts
When Steve Jobs founded Apple in 1976 along with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, he probably had no idea that it would be worth even a billion dollars, let alone a trillion! If he was alive today, he sure would have been proud.
Anyways, as Tim Cook noted, Apple should be more focused on developing future technologies that will define the next few decades of computing and information processing, rather than milestones like these.
They also need to do a much better job of ensuring quality of their current product lines including their software, as we all know that the old “it just works” is no more applicable. Hopefully, they do the same in the coming future.