Today, it's over $246 (although it did peak at $272.46 at the end of April), valuing the company at $224.54 billion
Only Microsoft (mcap $230 billion) and Exxon Mobile ($283 billion) are more highly valued.
Mac the knife
Of course, it's the symbolic closeness of Apple overcoming Microsoft that's got stock watchers checking the relative movements of each company.
Will Jobs finally overcome Gates and Ballmer thanks to mobile phones rather than computers? There would be a certain amount of delicious irony should it happen.
It should be pointed out that the reason for this potential occurrence happening now is the relative collapse of Microsoft's share price - down 11 percent over the past two weeks. During that time, Apple's share price has only dropped 3 percent.
And the wider context is a 21 percent rise in Apple's share price over the past six months, compared to an 12 percent decline in Microsoft's.
