【1990 Archives】

It's hard to really capture Apple's dominance.

But here's one way: Apple's earnings990 ArchivesTuesday were good enough to send its stock up 4 percent in after-hours trading. That's a jump of about $37 billion in value—or how much Snapchat plus Twitter are worth combined with $10 billion left over.

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This is an imperfect comparison, but it goes to show: Apple is gigantic.

Oh, and then there's the cash. Its now-infamous stockpile grew once again, topping out at $261 billion. That's $261 billion just hanging around (in various forms). Apple could buy any number of major U.S. companies without even thinking about it—which makes Apple Music's slog of a show Planet of the Appsall the more unacceptable.

The only real question for Apple heading into its earnings report was whether its recent struggles in China would continue. But because it's Apple, the company provided a pleasant surprise for how its doing in the world's second-biggest economy.

Even the freakin' iPad showed positive signs.

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How about the future? Surely what goes up must come down. After all, as has been written by many pundits, Apple is out of ideas and really hasn't been able to innovate recently. The iPhone is stale and boring and the next one won't do that well.

Well, Apple doesn't seem to be very worried. They're projecting some pretty big numbers around when the next iPhone drops.

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