All eyes were on the race for $1 trillion marketcap. Apple, Amazon, and Google were all running in the race.
With Apple shares up on Thursday morning, the magical level was crossed. Thus far, we can declare Apple the winner.
Next up is Amazon who is not too far from entering that exclusive club itself.
The biggest question is can Apple maintain this tier? A decade ago, PetroChina hit a marketcap of a trillion dollars only to lose it quickly due to a collapse in oil prices.
Apple does have some headwinds. The IPad was the last "revolutionary" product to really breakthrough. Services is a growing segment for the company but this follows the disappointment of the Iwatch. So where does Apple go from here?
Over the past few years, Apple's growth has been using the model of bringing out higher priced IPhone with models now touching $1,000 each. This has worked since Apple has such a loyal following among its users.
Going out a few years, Apple is already showing itself to be an early leader in both augmented and virtual reality. While their plans are not fully clear, the IPhone should have these capabailities in them over the next few years.
China is a growing segment for Apple. In fact, the entire Asian region is important to them. According to their last filing, this market grew 19% for Apple. As a total part of the revenues, it it still rather small yet this market cannot be overlooked.
Being dependent upon China brings in a couple of factors. Not only is there the difficulty in entering that market and combating the piracy that is so common, this also puts the company in the tariff war that is presently taking place. If this battle between the President and the Chinese persists, Apple is going to have to navigate it very carefully.
Steve Cook did a wonderful job taking over for Steve Jobs. Under his watch, the marketcap of Apple is up over $600 billion. There are many reasons that are attributed to this, one of them being the run in the market in general. Nevertheless, the megatech companies have continually outpaced the market.
The biggest question for Cook is if he can bring out another "game changing" product. There is lot of speculation about Apple's intentions with television, autonomous cars, and AR/VR. Thus far, the company is very tight-lipped about the plans it has. This is not uncommon for the tech giant.
For a few moments at least, Apple could claim to be a trillion dollar company; the only one in the world.