Steve Jobs steers Apple to the top

Steve Jobs
By dethroning Microsoft as the world's top technology company, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs has piloted a stunning phoenix-like rise from the ashes for the firm he founded nearly 35 years ago.

Apple, maker of the Macintosh computer, the iPod, iPhone and iPad, surpassed US software giant Microsoft this week in terms of market value and now trails only Exxon Mobil and PetroChina in market capitalization.

Apple's market capitalization -- the number of shares outstanding multiplied by the stock price -- at the close of trading on Wall Street on Thursday was 230.53 billion dollars compared with 227.86 billion dollars for Microsoft.

Apple's annual net profit, however, continues to trail that of Microsoft -- 5.7 billion dollars compared with 14.6 billion dollars last fiscal year -- as Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer noted in New Delhi on Thursday.

"It is a long game," Ballmer told reporters. "Certainly there is no technology company on the planet that is as profitable as we are."

Microsoft may indeed be more profitable, but investors are increasingly betting on Apple and its string of must-have consumer gadgets.

"It's really hard not to be upbeat on Apple," said Standard and Poor's analyst Clyde Montevirgen, pointing out that the Cupertino, California company's sales and profits rose even during the economic crisis.

Apple's ascendance can be directly traced to Silicon Valley legend Jobs, who Fortune Magazine last year crowned the "CEO of the Decade."

Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple in 1976 and introduced the first Macintosh computer in 1984 along with innovations such as the computer mouse.

Jobs left Apple in 1985 after an internal power struggle and started NeXT Computer and Academy-Award-winning Pixar, maker of hit animated films such as "Toy Story."

Apple, meanwhile, stagnated until Jobs returned to the company in 1997.

Since then, Apple has gone from strength to strength, starting with the iMac in 1998, the iPod in 2001, iTunes in 2003, the iPhone in 2007, the App Store in 2008 and the iPad this year.

"I think it's the most extraordinary turnaround in corporate history," said Spencer Ante, corporate deputy bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal.

"Not only are they back in the game but they're leading the industry forward," Ante said on the Journal's Digits Live Show.

The iPad appears to be the latest success for the 55-year-old Jobs -- Apple sold one million iPads in the first 28 days, more than double the number of iPhones sold during the same period after the smartphone's 2007 release.

The biggest cloud hanging over Apple is Jobs's health. The Apple CEO was treated for pancreatic cancer in 2004 and underwent a liver transplant last year.

"If Jobs goes it will impact the stock but I don't think it will impact the company," said Montevirgen. "He's assembled a very strong engineering team. There are a lot of engineers who think like him.

"I think Apple will continue to thrive."
source: AFP

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