Shares of Apple hit an all-time high today, briefly trading over $200 per share on NASDAQ. At such levels, Apple sports a market value of nearly $170 billion, making the company nearly 3x the size of Dell, and closing in on one-half the size of Microsoft.

Perhaps more significant than the staggering value is the rate at which Apple has reversed its fortunes. Shares are up more than 10x from where they were trading in mid-2003, when the iPod was just starting to get hot and the PC market was still dominated by the likes of Dell and HP. Since then, Apple has been able to leverage its hot brand to improve sales across the board, with sales of Macs rising 34 percent in the most recent quarter.

For the year, Apple shares are amongst the top performing, up a whopping 143%. This compares to a 53% gain for Google, whose triple-digit share price is often a headline-grabbing subject.

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