On August 19th, Apple became the first US-listed company to ever reach $2 trillion in market value. This is fascinating by itself, but it is even more remarkable considering that it took Apple 42 years to reach $1 trillion, but only 2 years after that to reach $2 billion. Even more impressive is that they managed to this in a time frame when the global economy is going through a steep downhill; all of apple’s second trillion dollars came in the last 21 weeks.

Apple is the second company to break the $2 billion mark after Saudi Aramco, which went public in December and temporarily exceeded the mark. It was also the most valuable company in the world until Apple bettered last month.

Luca Maestri, Apple’s finance chief, said: “Our products and services are very relevant to our customers’ lives and, in some cases, even more during the pandemic than ever before.” However, he did additionally comment that if there had been no pandemic, their upturn would have been even more remarkable.

The quote above by Maestri seems more relevant than ever. By branching to a variety of products, such as smartwatches (Apple Watch) and wireless earbuds (Airpods), Apple has solidified its ecosystem of a seamless connection between its products, leading to endless amounts of profit. It has even expanded on to subscription-based software and services such as Apple Music, extending the reach of the already colossal giant that it has been so far.

These services and wearable electronics alone generate billions of dollars, generating a combined $19.5 billion in Q3. This has allowed Apple to slacken prices on their new iPhone models and release more budget-friendly products such as the iPhone SE. These lower prices attract users of competitor products such as Android smartphones, adding even more weight to Apple’s stature as a tech giant.

While Apple may be the first US-listed company to break the mark, it seems as if others such as Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet (Google’s parent company) are looking to break the mark as well. Hopefully, this comes as motivation for those companies to develop better products that meet what the customers want.

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