If the restructuring of Alphabet into Google's parent company last year didn’t put their name on the map, recent news of its shares beating Apple has. This morning the company announced that their market capitalization has reached $547.1 billion, surpassing that of Apple’s $529.3 billion and making them the world’s most valuable company.
Alphabet's umbrella encompasses Google and many others, like Nest Labs, Google Capital, YouTube and Uber. It was originally a subsidiary of Google, but in 2015 things were restructured. The role reversal was made possible by the creation of a dummy Alphabet subsidiary, which was merged with Google so that its stock could be made into Alphabet's. Afterwards, the “dummy” was made legitimate and the name was changed to Alphabet Inc. This new massive network, according to Digital Trends, enabled its subsidiaries to focus on their own identities while it looked for new investments.
With Google already one of the biggest companies in the world, the switch made Alphabet even bigger. According to CNBC, the last time “Google was more valuable than Apple was in February 2010” and that was when they were both worth below $200 billion. It was also when the iPhone 3GS was on the market, prior to the release of the first iPad. In 2012 though, Apple launched ahead to a value of over $650 billion and beat Exxon as the most valuable company in the world.
Apple’s biggest selling point may also be what’s doing the most damage. The iPhone accounts for “two-thirds of revenue” and while that is a lot, sales aren’t increasing as rapidly as they once were. Plus, iPads and Mac computers are actually dropping in sales, which is worrying to investors. Many industry professionals feel that to beat Alphabet, Apple must compete with Android by offering smaller phones and producing products at a lower cost. Though there are rumors that a moderately sized iPhone 5SE is on the way, it still may not be enough to compete with the tech giant that is Alphabet.
