Apple (News - Alert) is making headlines everywhere due to hitting an enormous financial marker. It is now public knowledge that yesterday at 9:30 a.m. EST, Apple shares increased by 1.3 percent, raising Apple’s market value up to $505.8 billion. Aside from the factual data that provides a clearer understanding of the significance of Apple’s record market capitalization, journalists and bloggers are offering creative comparisons of entities Apple’s value suprasses,  really crystallizing Apple’s worth. However, it remains to be seen if Apple is officially valued over its greatest rival, Samsung (News - Alert).

Reports indicate that only six companies have ever reached the $500 billion mark, including Microsoft (News - Alert) which was once valued at $600 billion back in 1999. The most recent company to reach $500 billion, was ExxonMobile back in 2007. PetroChina, a Chinese oil company once reached a value of $1 trillion, but its market capitalization never reached the $500 billion mark. Subsequent to the market cap, Apple is also reported to have surpassed Hewlett-Packard (News - Alert) in terms of revenue as well as topped Google in net worth.  

Apple’s value of half a trillion dollars has inspired many creative headlines; for example, “Apple is worth more than Poland” and “Apple is worth more than Germany.” But the cleverer comparisons come from this blog which reveals that Apple’s value is now placed above four U.S. Civil Wars as well as the entire U.S. consumption of beef. But despite that fact that Apple has financially succeeded over countries, wars, oil and other tech companies, there is yet to be headline that reads, “Apple is worth more than Samsung.” Perhaps there are other aspects of the companies that when compared could render this statement true, but the fact that journalists are reluctant to put the statement in print indicates that Samsung is currently the number one tech retailer. Perhaps with the launch of the latest iPad that will debut in San Francisco on March 7, that will all change.