Apple comes out swinging and supersedes Samsung as the world’s biggest smartphone maker

Apple has hit the ground running in 2024 as the company has topped Samsung to become the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer for the first time in 10 years.

This is according to City Index data, which illustrates the world’s largest firms by market capitalisation.

In a world of smartphones and artificial intelligence, it’s no surprise that technology dominated the stock market in 2023, with seven technological firms, including Apple, Amazon, and Tesla, ranking in the top 10.

Apple is the most valuable business in history, with a market capitalisation of $3.03 trillion. Apple was created in 1976, and it went public in 1980.

Only in 2011 did it become the world’s most valuable firm for the first time, with a $350 billion valuation. It succeeded ExxonMobil at the top.

It was the world’s largest corporation for most of the 2010s before becoming the first US company to exceed $1 trillion in value in 2018.

It topped $2 trillion two years later. Currently at $3.03 trillion, it accounts for 11% of the United States’ GDP.

Microsoft was the second-largest corporation in 2023, with a market capitalisation of $2.51 trillion, owing to its market-leading Microsoft Azure cloud computing services and investment in OpenAI.

However, the products that propelled it to success in 2000, such as Windows and Office, continue to account for a significant portion of its earnings.

Microsoft was also the world’s most valuable corporation in 2000; adjusted for inflation, it is now worth more than three times that amount ($2.51 trillion).

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