Apple passed through the 700 billion Dollar market capitalisation last evening, by the close that is. At 122.02 Dollars a share, 5.843082 billion shares in issue = 712.97 billion by my calculation, the WSJ suggests that it is 710.74 billion Dollars. I must have something wrong then, perhaps the number of shares in issue which was reported at the last set of results is a little less. i.e. They (Apple treasury) must have bought more shares back over the last two weeks. The WSJ article that points out the "first", titled Apple: $710 Billion and Counting, that as a result of a fast growing customer base in China, Tim Cook reckons that the law of large numbers does not apply. If you think about it, whilst Apple has the smartphone profits share (remember yesterday), they certainly do not sell the most phones. Quality over everything else. I jotted down a few points for an interview: Apple through 700 billion Dollars as a market cap, that is pretty interesting. = (at current exchange rates) 8.343 trillion Rands. What Apple pays in dividends is about what we (South Africa) pay annually in interest on outstanding government debt. That is astonishing.