Apple's market position has never been so strong. Although Apple has some reasons to be concerned about the future, in the current situation it is difficult to achieve better results. Very good smartphone sales, domination on the smartwatches and tablets market, as well as strong results on the laptop market, which may soon be even more spectacular thanks to the MacBook Neo. Each of these factors, together with the constantly developed service ecosystem, results in the company's value increasing over the years. Currently, Apple achieves capitalization at the level of USD 3.8 trillion. and although in its history it had an even higher valuation for a short time (in 2025 it was just over USD 4 trillion), investors have reasons to be satisfied.
How much does Apple earn? Current financial results
The latest quarterly report shows significant increases. These are driven primarily by the excellent sales of iPhone 17 and iPhone 16. Apple smartphones performed so well that in 2025, for the first time in over a dozen years, the brand sold the most mobile devices globally and thus overtook its eternal competitor, Samsung.
Financial results for the first quarter of 2026 showed that Apple recorded as much as 16%. revenue growth compared to the same period a year earlier – this translated into an impressive amount USD 143.8 billion In practice, this meant a profit of $2.84 per share, which clearly exceeded previous market estimates.
What makes Apple the most money?
For a long time, the most important source of revenue for Apple has, of course, been smartphones. Apple wants to further strengthen its position on this market in the near future, reaching more and more boldly into the pockets of less wealthy users. Budget versions of iPhones, with slightly weaker parameters, are very popular, and the iPhone 16e, proposed in 2025, became an instant sales hit. Its successor – iPhone 17e – promises to be an equally successful device in terms of sales.
Tim Cook's strategy of using not only premium and upper-class equipment, but also mid-priced equipment, turned out to be the right decision. In recent times Apple earned $85.27 billion in the smartphone segment. (an increase of 23% year-on-year), which is an undisputed record in the history of the company.
Services are in second place in terms of revenue. This category includes products such as Apple iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV+, but also all commissions collected in the App Store, i.e. an application store. Here, the giant from Cupertino has recently recorded an increase of 14%. year to year, which in practice means the level of revenue $30.01 billion
The podium is closed by the category of accessories, smart home and wearables. Although it was only one of two that recently recorded a decline (by 2% year-on-year), it still allowed Apple to earn $11.49 billion
Another segment that has recently seen a decline are laptops and Mac computers. Level revenue $8.39 billion meant a decrease of 7%. year to year, but Apple expects to gain a lot in this category in the next quarter, thanks to the MacBook Neo, which, offering an attractive price, compares very favorably with the competition.
Apple's market value compared to other big tech companies
Apple is at the forefront of the world in terms of capitalization, although it still has to acknowledge the superiority of Nvidia. However, the top most valuable companies in the world are dominated by big tech. The status as of March 2026 is as follows:
| Business | Capitalization |
|---|---|
|
Nvidia |
$4.45 trillion |
|
Apple |
$3.85 trillion |
|
Alphabet |
$3.70 trillion |
|
Microsoft |
$2.99 trillion |
|
Amazon |
$2.25 trillion |
|
TSMC |
$1.75 trillion |
|
Meta |
$1.61 trillion |
|
Broadcom |
$1.59 trillion |
|
Tesla |
$1.48 trillion |
What does Apple's future look like?
Apple is strongly focused on developing hardware segments that are currently perceived as leading. Smartphones, laptops, smartwatches and tablets are the most popular devices in the world, but all market experts indicate that their time is slowly running out. The growing role of technologies related to augmented reality, cloud services, artificial intelligence and smart glasses means that companies that have heavily invested in these areas are perceived as the most promising. Apple is also trying to find its way in each of these areas, but so far it has suffered failure after failure.
Although in the short term the lack of our own artificial intelligence does not seem to be a big problem that can be overcome with appropriate partnerships, in the long run, it could mean problems for Apple. The lack of independence in this area, as well as failed experiments in the field of new generation devices that go beyond the currently recognized “standard”, is a potential trap that the new CEO of Apple, i.e. Tim Cook's successor, will have to face.
However, in the next few years, all this should not have the slightest impact on Apple's financial condition. However, the 2030s may already mean the need to switch activities from mainly hardware to more services — and Apple still has a lot to catch up on, despite regularly growing revenues from this segment.
