Apple's market capitalisation surpasses $300-billion

Apple Inc, which ignited the personal computing revolution with the iconic Mac and came up with its bestselling products, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, has started the New Year with a market capitalisation of $302 billion.

The stock of the Cupertino-based technology giant traded as high as $330.20 yesterday morning, up by about 2 per cent from its 31 December 2010 closing.

Apple, which is now the world's second-largest company behind Exxon Mobil, which has a market cap of around $375 billion, became the most valuable company in the technology sector after surpassing software giant Microsoft in May last year.

Microsoft, which has a market cap today of around $240.4 billion, was around $219 billion in May last year, when Apple surpassed it with a market cap of $222 billion.

For the entire 2010, Apple's stock gained 52 per cent, and more than 270 per cent from the lows of February 2009 and from the measly $7 a share 10 years ago to $330.20 3 January.

With devices like the iPod, the iPhone and the newly launched iPad in its portfolio, the California-based technology giant co-founded by Steve Jobs in 1976 is widely expected to even overtake ExxonMobil to become the world's largest company by market capitalisation.