If we've learned anything in the past week, it's that the stock market giveth and the stock market taketh away. But today, for most of the afternoon, Apple was the largest company in the world, using market capitalization (share price X shares outstanding). 

While iPods and iPads and MacBook Airs are certainly everywhere you look, I always expected the biggest company in the world to be some nebulous corporation like Oracle or the defending (and still, after they reclaimed the title at the close of the market) champion, Exxon. When all was said and done, Exxon clocked in at $348.32 billion, while Apple was nipping at their heels with $346.74 billion. That's a LOT of iPods. 

The irony in all this is that Apple pretty much built their identity with a Super Bowl ad in 1984 that was a satire of George Orwell's 1984, suggesting that they were the new guys to take down the establishment. 

Now, 27 years later, Apple is the very embodiment of the establishment, the largest company in the world. It certainly help their cause when CEO and founder Steve Jobs has taken to addressing the world like a James Bond villain. 

Steve-Jobs_0.jpg

At the end of the day, though, Exxon was able to keep their title as the biggest evil corporation in the world. Which is the way it should be; Exxon way out-evils Apple. I mean, come on, oil drilling and Alaskan spills are way worse than reception issues with the iPhone 4. 

Still, stay tuned, there's plenty of time for Apple to get bigger. I mean, look at the above picture. Does this look like a guy who's content being #2? 

via The New York Times