Love it or hate it, Apple has been driving the technlogy industry since it introduced the iPod. In doing so, it shook up the music industry on its way to making smartphones a reality, turned tablet PCs from an idle dream to an actual industry, and even salvaged the smartwatch with the Apple Watch. The rewards have been enormous, and the company just crossed a historical milestone: Being the first to be worth $1 trillion.
The New York Times notes that Apple hit the mark briefly today, after hitting a value just above $207 a share. Apple has been on this path for a while, and took a shot at reaching it by buying up its own stock. Actually, Apple’s spent $20 billion in the last few months alone taking its stock off the public market.
The question now becomes… what next? The iPhone X, which was supposed to be the company’s next big breakthrough, has sold well relative to the rest of the industry, but didn’t recapture pop culture the way Apple was hoping. And while Apple is dominant in selling us phones, it’s struggled to go after competitors like Google, Netflix, and Spotify as what we do with our phones has become more important than the phone itself. So while the financial mark Apple has reached is impressive, and while it will likely soon return to trillion-dollar status again, that doesn’t mean the company can rest on its laurels.
(via New York Times)