Apple's Market Cap Larger Than Microsoft's

News today has it that Apple's outstanding shares are for the first time ever worth more than Microsoft's. Market cap isn't everything when determining the value of a company, but considering that just over 10 yeas ago Apple was free falling into irrelevance. Apple's market cap was reported to be $224.01 billion while Microsoft's was $217.52 billion. The only company in the world with a market cap larger than Apple is Exxon Mobil at $279.21 billion. For those of you who aren't entirely aware of what market cap is, it's measured by multiplying the number of outstanding shares by their value. But as with stock prices themselves, these prices tend to be influenced more by people's perception of the company's performance than it's actual worth. It's basically symbolic and it seems people have more confidence in Apple's ability to innovate and lead than they do in Microsoft now.