iPhone-maker Apple cracks trillion-dollar mark

Technology giant Apple has achieved another milestone. The iPhone-maker has become the world's first publicly traded company to surpass market cap of $1 trillion. The milestone comes just days after the company announced its second quarter results for the June quarter.

Apple's shares gained $5.89 to close at $207.39, leaving the company's market value just above $1 trillion. It's a long way for a company that was on brink of bankruptcy just two decades back in 1997, when its stock traded for less than $1. Today, Apple sits atop a stock market dominated by technology giants. These include Amazon, Google's parent Alphabet, Microsoft and Facebook round out the top five in market value.

To survive, Apple brought back its once-exiled co-founder, Steve Jobs, as interim CEO and turned to its arch rival Microsoft for a $150 million cash infusion to help pay its bills.

Jobs eventually shepherded a decade-long succession of iconic products such as iPhone that transformed Apple from a technological boutique to a cultural phenomenon and money-making machine.

In its most recent quarter, Apple fetched an average price of $724 per iPhone -- a nearly 20 per cent increase from an average of $606 per iPhone at the same time last year.

The price escalation has widened Apple's profit margins to the delight of investors, who have boosted the company's market value by about $83 billion since the quarterly report came out late Tuesday.

Apple's ride to $1 trillion: The magic number that gets it therehttps://t.co/NkvrhT1Cah

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The 9% gain was Apple's biggest two-day advance in nearly a decade. Apple's stock has climbed by 23% so far this year.

As mighty as Apple may seem now, economic and cultural forces can quickly shift the corporate pecking order.

Some analysts believe e-commerce leader Amazon.com will supplant Apple as the world's most valuable company in the next year or two as its spreading tentacles reach into new markets.