AAPL passes Microsoft to reach 2nd on US market cap list

Worth noting (and it has been noted here and elsewhere), market cap is not tied to revenue or profit in any way. It's all about what people THINK a company is worth, and investors right now (wrong or right) think Apple has more POTENTIAL for making money in the next few years than Microsoft does, hence the higher valuation.

Market Cap is the stock-based valuation of a company. It's calculated by taking the number of shares in existence and multiplying it by the price per share.

For example, (according to Google Finance) AAPL has 909.94 million shares, the share price at market close was $244.05. 244.05 * 909940000 = $222 Billion.

Can't you just google it if you don't understand what it means?

So are we to not like Apple now that they're the big monopoly? Kinda mixed feelings on this one. Seems that's the path IBM, Microsoft, Google, etc—they're great while they're the underdogs. Apple's sterile iTunes community has kept me away from that area of their business, I hope it doesn't bleed over too much into their uncool, shrinking desktop computer business plan because that's all I'm hanging onto with Apple.

The DOJ is just bored, and looking for something to justify their useless, overpaid jobs. Why don't they investigate the attempted buy off of Congressman Sestak instead? That is more worth of their attention than Apple's alleged offenses.

I am so loving this!

I don't want to be paranoid or anything, but I find it funny how people seem to feel that Google is the hero of all things. Now I like Apple products but I'm not a fan of Apple, and I like Microsoft products as well but also not a fan of their practices. I'm also a fan of Google but I'm also scared of the company the most.

Out of those three, Google is sitting high and mighty, and though people seem to love them so much and always seem to point out that Mr. Steve Jobs is a power/control hungry tyrant, for some reason I can't help but think Google has a hidden agenda. No company offers 'free' services without asking for something back.

It pains me to think that there are quite a number of people that confuse open with free, but the truth is Google isn't that open at all. Free they are but open? Since when was adsense 'that' open? And I can't help but think that with Android populating the market; most everyone using gmail; googleTv on the rise; and Android-based tablets popping up in the horizon with ChromeOS, everyone will be connected to the net and with Google, and they will know just what everyone is doing.

To me, it almost feels like it's a huge wire tapping-on-the-go and everyone will succumb to it thinking it's free while they're really being monitored remotely for every little thing they do.

Remember how the government wanted search data from google for "terrorist activities" ? Remember the personal data wifi issue a week or two ago? Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

I wonder how much this has to do with actual market share, product price, profit and turnover.

I bet it has a lot more to do with image and hype.

Still it does show the people are starting to take apple seriously on a number of different platforms.

This is great news :-)

Damn! Does this mean I have to go out and buy Antivirus software for my MacPro?