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  • Apple becomes first trillion dollar US-listed company

    Apple becomes first trillion dollar US-listed company file photo Apple becomes first trillion dollar US-listed company

    Apple has become the first US-listed company to be valued at a trillion dollars.

    During the day, the share price of the iPhone maker jumped by 2.8% to $207.05, passing the $1tn (£762bn) mark in New York trading.

    Its stock has soared 9% since Tuesday when Apple's third-quarter earnings exceeded Wall Street's expectations.

    The company, which was started in a garage in Palo Alto by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976, has transformed the way people communicate with its ubiquitous iPhone.

    When the iPhone was introduced in 2007 it kicked off a smartphone revolution, leaving the giants of the mobile phone industry Nokia and Blackberry struggling for survival.

    Alphabet, the parent of Google, scrambled to provide its Android software to power mobile phones, making sure Apple didn't steal a huge march on rivals.

    That helped Samsung to become the world's biggest mobile phone manufacturer, while China's Huawei overtook Apple to become the second-largest smartphone seller this week.

    Apple has turned to the courts to protect its advantage and won multi-million dollar payouts from Samsung for allegedly copying some of its technology.

    Mr Jobs, who returned to revitalise the company in 1996 when Apple was worth $3bn, died in 2011.

    Before the release of the iPhone, Apple was reporting revenue of less than $20bn and profits of less than $2bn from the sale of its Mac personal computers in 2006.

    Last year, sales had risen to $229bn and profits to $48.4bn, making it the most profitable public-listed US company.

    Apple, which has seen its stock surge more than 50,000% since its stock market listing in 1980, has struggled to produce a product that replicates the success of the iPhone.

    While Apple is the first company to hit the trillion dollar mark, it is likely to be followed by Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft. Amazon is currently worth $875bn, Alphabet is valued at $850bn and Microsoft $823bn.