Report on Apple’s Market Capitalization

Report on Apple’s market capitalization.

This report gives an idea about how well Apple did since the 1990’s. It is based on a graph about Apple’s Market Capitalization through the years, compared to other major companies. The aim of this report is to describe and explain the fluctuations of the graph.

Apple, unlike Microsoft or Cisco, doesn’t seem to have any growth between 1990 and 2004. This might be due to the fact that, during this period, Microsoft was dominating the market. This was caused by Microsoft's “Windows”, that sent the company to the top in 1999 ($600bn of capitalization). From 1999 to 2002 Apple grew only slightly, even though the company created iTunes and the iMac.

It is from 2004 onwards that Apple started its growth. This might be due to the introduction of a new product: the iPod mini. Massively sold, the product must have had a very positive impact on Apple's image and helped the company in being world-famous. The growth continues relatively slowly until 2007, when Apple released the iPhone. This smartphone had an amazing success (5 million were sold in one year). This was supposed to bring the company to the top, but then the crisis occurred in 2008. People had less buying power and avoided consuming luxury goods. As a result of this, the company’s market capitalization plunged from $200bn to $100bn in only one year. Apple is not the only company that suffered from the crisis. Microsoft's market capitalization was divided by three in two years.

Unlike most companies, Apple had a very quick growth in 2009. This is surely due to its very effective marketing policy and its new products such as the “Apple Store” or the iPhone 3GS. This extremely rapid growth continues until today: From $100bn in 2009 to $623bn today, with only one small negative fluctuation in 2012.

Microsoft had a very fast growth from