Apple Ranks as Most Valuable Company After IPhone-Fueled Decade

(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc.’s ambitious upgrade to the iPhone this week comes a decade after the smartphone was unveiled, when energy companies made up half of the top 10 businesses globally and Apple was ranked much, much lower.

Now, worth more than $800 billion, Apple is the world’s most valuable listed company and stands atop a list that’s dominated by technology, e-commerce and social-media enterprises.

This table shows the largest companies by market capitalization at the dawn of the smartphone era on June 29, 2007, when the iPhone was released, and where they rank now. In between, there was the global financial crisis, while the rise of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. reflects China’s climb to become the world’s second-largest economy.

This second table shows how the 15 biggest companies in June 2007 have fared the past decade. The latest valuations have former top-ranking Exxon Mobil Corp. at No. 10 on the charts, while other fossil fuel providers have fallen further.