Apple: Way the most valuable tech company in the world

At the close of the New York markets on Tuesday, Apple climbed $100 billion past Microsoft in market valuation. And the little engine that could keeps climbing, way more than Hewlett Packard, Sony, Dell and the many others that once pronounced it dead.

In a post on Seeking Alpha, MG Siegler points out the rise of Apple is counterpointed by the descent of Microsoft. A year ago, Microsoft's valuation was some $60B more than Apple. Today, Apple has a market cap of $330.66B while Microsoft is at $228B. What a switch!

In fact, not only is it clear now that Microsoft will not be re-taking the crown as the most-valuable tech company any time soon, but they’re flirting with being knocked down to the number three — or even number four spot. In the past year, while Microsoft’s stock is down slightly, Google’s is up nearly $100-a-share. This has allowed the search giant to surpass the $200 billion market cap themselves. And they’re now just $28 billion away from Microsoft.

Question, if Google passes Microsoft in valuation, how many days later will the reign of Steve Ballmer last?