经济学人下载:苹果vs美孚

American business
美国商业

Big Apple v Big Oil
苹果vs美孚

Apple briefly becomes the world’s largest public company
苹果一度成为世界第一大市值公司

Aug 13th 2011 | SAN FRANCISCO| from the print edition

BY ANY standards it is a remarkable achievement. In the space of 14 years, Apple has transformed itself from a computer firm on the brink of bankruptcy into a stockmarket superstar. On August 9th its market capitalisation surpassed that of Exxon Mobil, making it the world’s largest public company. Not for long: by the end of the day’s trading, the tech giant was $1 billion smaller than the oil giant: $347 billion to $348 billion. But Exxon’s lead is fragile. If the oil price falls further, Apple will surely outstrip it.

无论从哪个角度看，这都是引人注目的成就。在14年的时间里，苹果从一个面临倒闭的电脑公司成功转型，成为证券市场的超级明星。在8月9日其市值超过了埃克森美孚，成为世界上第一大上市公司。但不久在当日收盘时，科技巨头苹果的市值仅以10亿美元低于石油大亨：分别是3470亿美元和3480亿美元。但埃克森的领先不堪一击，如果油价继续下跌，苹果必然会超过。

Oil remains a vital raw material, and Exxon can extract it from difficult places more efficiently than any other firm. But Apple’s rise reflects the growing influence of the digital industry, and the way that industry has changed. It used to be dominated by companies such as IBM and Microsoft, which made their billions selling software and services to corporations. Apple has leap-frogged both of them by delighting consumers.

石油一直都是重要的原材料，埃克森美孚能够比其他公司更高效地从恶劣环境中提炼出石油。但苹果的崛起反映了数字产业与日俱增的影响力，以及它所带来的改变。过去的数字产业是IBM和微软公司的天下，它们以出售软件和服务获得了巨大的赢利。凭着用户好评，苹果已跃升至两家公司之前。