Apple becomes world's 1st publicly traded trillion-dollar company

Apple has become the first $1 trillion publicly listed United States company, crowning a decade-long rise fuelled by its ubiquitous iPhone that transformed it from a niche player in personal computers into a global powerhouse spanning entertainment and communications.

Digging the information further, Apple technically is not the first company to hit $ 1 trillion mark in the U.S. stock market.

The share price jumped by more than 8 percent this week after Apple reported impressive quarterly earnings on Tuesday, driven largely by strong sales for high-price iPhones.

Apple is the first publicly-owned company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization.

That price translates to a $1 trillion market cap, based on the current estimated number of outstanding shares.

While Apple is the first company to hit the trillion dollar mark, it is likely to be followed by Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft. Ives continued to say: "It just speaks to the vision that [co-founder Steve Jobs] and now [CEO Tim Cook] have had in making sure Apple isn't just a hardware company".

The ailing Jobs handed the corporate reins to his chief lieutenant, Cook, in 2011.

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

For as much as Apple shares have increased over the past few days, some analysts and tech observers are confident the stock could rise even higher in the weeks and months ahead. The shares are up 22 per cent so far this year.

Cook's hiring may have been one of the best things Jobs did for Apple.

This year saw a slew of new Macbook Pro models, the Apple HomePod and rides on the tail of the late-2017 launch of the iPhone X.