Apple is once again valued at over $3 trillion; the product investors are thinking about

In 2018, Apple and Amazon were in a race to see which one would be the first publicly traded U.S. company with a valuation greater than $1 trillion. Apple won the race on August 2nd, 2018, and was the first to reach a $2 trillion valuation on August 19th, 2020. Apple scored the hat trick on January 3rd, 2022 when it was the first U.S. publicly traded outfit to reach a valuation of $3 trillion.

Over the last few weeks, the stock has been trading sideways in what Wall Street analysts love to call a "trading range." During this long period of watching the stock hit resistance at the top and find support at the bottom, the shares-again in Wall Street parlance-are on the verge of a "breakout" which, when accompanied by high volume, would be a bullish sign for the stock based on technical analysis.

This week, Apple recaptured the $3 trillion valuation level that it was the first to hit almost two years ago. Apple started this year trading at $125 and has since tacked on nearly $70 for a gain of better than 55% for the year. So what is driving Apple's return to the $3 trillion level? Apple's strong ecosystem is one reason why investors are bullish on Apple. The second largest business segment for Apple, Services, has really just started to show what it can deliver to the company's coffers.

Investors like to look ahead so the more obvious reason for the rally is Apple's Vision Pro spatial computer. It's not the device itself that has the stock on the rise. It's the promise of what Vision Pro symbolizes which is a new dominant device from Apple in a post-iPhone world, Apple Glass. Vision Pro is just the first step toward Apple's AR specs which would deliver a world first promised by Google when it introduced Google Glass in 2012.

For major investors, the iPhone is old news. Sure, Apple will add new features to the device and people will still buy it. And the iPhone could still help Apple tack on a trillion dollars as it moves toward a $4 trillion valuation. But the real product that will take Apple to the next level isn't Vision Pro but the product afterward that Vision Pro will help Apple build. While we really don't hear much about it these days, Apple Glass, or whatever Apple names its AR specs, is still the Next Big Thing.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has professed his love for AR and it wouldn't be surprising if he hangs around to top off his career by unveiling the device that replaces the iPhone. It would be Cook's January 9th, 2007 moment. That was the date, of course, when the late Steve Jobs first pulled the iPhone out of his pocket and changed the world. Can it happen again?