What It Takes To Hit A TrillionLessons from Apple's success, and who's most likely to join the $1 trillion market cap club next.

[Collection]Apple did it. Amazon’s close. So is Google-parent Alphabet. But just how does a company earn a $1 trillion market capitalization? And do any retailers have a chance? As it made its way to a 13-digit valuation, Apple understood better than most the value of the consumer experience. In its stores, Apple fused digital and physical retail before “omnichannel” became a buzzword. Apple’s take on shopping, which launched in 2001, turned its stores into experience centers with classes, demonstrations and hands-on customer support in lieu of hard-sell tactics. And its premier product, the iPhone, is all about ease of use. The company often shied away from much-hyped, but nascent technologies when they didn’t seem ripe enough to deliver on customer expectations and maintain an easy, seamless experience. (Apple has tended to wait for tech like virtual reality to mature and then jump in, for instance it now ensures its devices can handle VR’s demands. It’s also rumored to be developing its own VF headset now). Sometimes overlooked is the App Store that could be accessed through the iPhone. The smartphone had no native, third-party apps at first and there were no plans for them. But in response to developer demand, Apple issued a software development kit and

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