Alphabet – which is essentially Google with a new name after the company restructured last summer – has passed Apple to become the most valuable company in the world.
The last time Apple was surpassed at the top by Google was in 2010, when it had yet to release its first iPad, the newest iPhone on the market was the 3GS, the Mac was the company’s biggest product line, and Steve Jobs was still running things.
Before then, the two companies exchanged positions several times between 2008 and 2010. By 2012, Apple had racked up $650 billion US value, which was more than $400 billion US Google’s worth. It passed Exxon in 2011 to become the world’s most valuable company. Its skyrocketing value during this period can be largely attributed to the iPhone becoming the world’s default communication device.
This dependence on the iPhone is also behind Apple’s most recent drop in value – sales in the fiscal first quarter increased only 1 percent from a year earlier, while iPad and Mac revenue dropped, according to CNBC.
As of today, Alphabet’s market cap is roughly $570 billion US, compared to Apple’s current market cap of about $535 billion US.
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