Apple (AAPL) Market Cap

Throughout much of the 80s and 90s, Apple (AAPL) played second fiddle to Microsoft (MSFT) and IBM in terms of size and stature.  The 2000s have obviously seen this relationship flip, however.  It's pretty amazing to see how far Apple has come when compared to the behemoths of IBM and Microsoft.  As shown in the charts below, even in early 2000, Apple was only a tenth of the size of both companies.  As it stands now, Apple is $17 billion bigger than IBM and about 71% of the size of Microsoft and seemingly climbing.  We made these charts after reading an interesting column in today's WSJ titled "The Microsofting of Apple?"  It's definitely a good read.