Stronger-than-expected demand for the new iPhone 17 series reportedly helped drive Apple’s market capitalization above $4 trillion on Tuesday (Oct. 28).
Apple became the third public company to reach that milestone, following Nvidia and Microsoft, which both reached it in July, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
The company’s stock price has been lifted by the success of its latest iPhone series and a reduction of tariff pressures, according to the report.
Its new iPhone 17 series outsold its predecessor, the iPhone 16, by 14% during the first 10 days it was available in the United States and China, the report said, citing data from Counterpoint Research.
Apple also launched new versions of its iPad Pro, Vision Pro and MacBook Pro ahead of the holiday shopping season, per the report.
Counterpoint Research Senior Analyst Mengmeng Zhang said in an Oct. 20 press release that the base model iPhone 17 is performing well in China, where consumers see it offering “great value for money,” while the iPhone 17 Pro Max is selling well in the U.S., where carriers have boosted their device subsidies to draw “ultra-premium customer segments.”
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“The emphasis on Pro Max offers has made the ultra-premium Apple device more accessible to customers, bolstering premiumization trends and strengthening the high-value customer ties to the Apple ecosystem,” Zhang said of the U.S. market.
On the first day of availability of the iPhone 17, Sept. 19, it was reported that JPMorgan increased its price target for Apple from $255 to $280, maintained its Overweight rating, and raised its revenue and earnings per share estimates, with analysts saying that the early demand indications suggested sales volumes would track higher than their initial expectation.
Morgan Stanley said two days earlier that it had seen “a positive early indication that iPhone replacement cycles could be stabilizing and upgrade rates could be improving.”
When Nvidia reached a $4 trillion market capitalization on July 9, becoming the first public company to do so, the rise in the chip designer’s stock was attributed to a continuing boom in demand for artificial intelligence technologies.
Microsoft’s market cap passed $4 trillion on July 30 after the company reported strong earnings driven in part by its cloud computing business.
