What economic turmoil? Apple on Tuesday was briefly the world's most valuable company in terms of market capitalization, overtaking Exxon Mobil.
At 2:30pm Eastern Apple's stock was valued at $366.62 for a market valuation of $337.11 billion. That bested Exxon Mobil, which had a valuation of $333.54 billion at the time, the New York Times reported.
By 3pm, Exxon had once again reclaimed the top spot with a market valuation of $337.49 billion to Apple's $335.12 billion. But as Shaw Wu, an analyst for Sterne Agee, told the Washington Post, the focus should not be on this afternoon's numbers. "We’re looking at Apple’s opportunity for the next decade and it’s still tremendous," he said.
Apple was $50 billion behind Exxon just three weeks ago, but oil prices have dropped in recent weeks and broad sell-offs drove down the company's price, the Times said.
Late last month, Strategy Analytics named Apple the world's number one smartphone vendor for the second quarter, numbers that were confirmed by IDC last week.
Apple shipped 20.3 million iPhones during the last quarter for a 19.3 percent share, IDC said. Apple's numbers represent a 141.7 percent increase from the same time period last year, when it shipped 8.4 million iPhones and captured 13 percent of the market. The company managed to jump past Samsung and Nokia, which had 16.2 percent and 15.7 percent of the global market during the quarter, respectively.
What contributed to the boost? IDC pointed to an increased number of markets in which the iPhone is sold (more than 200 countries and 200 carriers), increased manufacturing capacity, and solid demand.
For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.