$1 Trillion? The race is on
Given the news emerging this week with regards to Intel’s processor fiasco, which Apple admitted has affected all iPhones, iPads and Mac computers, it may be worth counting Apple out of the running for 2018’s hottest race: Becoming the world’s first company valued at $1 trillion.
On Friday Apple released a statement admitting that The Spectre or Meltdown microprocessor has left all of their devices vulnerable to hackers and subject to potential slowdowns in speed of up to 50%.
According to Sky News, there has been no evidence so far the flaws have been exploited by hackers.
However, as developers try to fix the flaws this is causing devices to slow down by up to 50% when performing computer tasks requiring a lot of storage or network usage.
In a blog post, Apple said it had released software updates for iOS its phone and tablets software, macOS used by its computers, and tvOS for its television products.
Despite this, they’re aiming to be the first company in the world to hit the trillion dollar landmark.
Investors and many in the finance industry have recently been predicting that, due to 2017’s meteoric performance of tech giants, this could well be the year that sees the milestone passed.
All eyes are now on the likes of Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, to see who starts the year the strongest. At the time of writing Apple leads the way with a market valuation of $869 billion, $130 billion ahead of nearest rival Alphabet.
Apple would need an increase in share price of just 15% to hit the landmark, with its shares rising nearly 50% last year. Amazon, some think, is in a better position to break the threshold, with its shares increasing a huge 57% last year.
The world’s top five companies are collectively worth $3.35tn – more than gross domestic product of the UK and every other country on Earth bar the US, China, Japan and Germany.
