Apple’s market value exceeded the half-a-trillion-dollar mark for the first time in after-hours trading in New York on Tuesday, just 40 days after it breached the $400bn level.

Apple is now by far the most valuable listed US company, with a market value at Tuesday’s close a full $87bn ahead of the next largest company by market capitalisation, energy giant Exxon Mobil. In rand terms, Apple market value — calculated by multiplying the share price by the number of tradeable shares in issue — is now a staggering R3,7 trillion (at R7,43/$).

In pre-market trading on Wednesday, the share was trading up by another $4. If it maintains those levels when markets open in New York, its market value will be north of $500bn. With the iPad 3 and a possible update to its Apple TV product set to be launched on 7 March, some analysts are already suggesting it may not be long before the company’s market cap exceeds $600bn. At that level, it will be worth more than twice Microsoft’s current valuation.

Already, Apple’s market value is $30bn more than the values of Google and Microsoft combined, despite strong performances by both companies’ shares in recent weeks.

Since the beginning of the year, Apple’s share price has added 32,2% on the back of a blow-out financial performance in its fiscal first quarter; over 12 months it’s put on 53,8%.

Investment website The Street reports that Apple has surpassed each $100bn increment in market cap in an exponential pace.

“When former CEO Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, it took almost a decade for Apple to close a quarter at more than $100bn in market cap, doing so in June 2007, according to Bloomberg,” The Street says. “It subsequently took Apple until the second quarter of 2010 to surpass $200bn, a span of 11 quarters.”

The company achieved the $300bn mark just four quarters after that, in the January 2011 quarter. “It took Apple just three quarters to surpass $400bn. It has now taken just 40 days to surpass $500bn.” — Staff reporter, TechCentral