Apple founder Steve Jobs may have left a legacy of billion units of iMacs, iPods, iPhones and iPads that people the world over use everyday.

For Apple stockholders, Mr Job's legacy is worth $351 billion - that is the present market value of Apple shares which shows that the company founder was not only a technology visionary, but also a financial genius.

In 2000, Apple stock's market value stood at $5 billion, which Mr Jobs grew 70-fold to make it the world's most valuable publicly traded company in the world briefly, before returning the title to Exxon Mobil.

At Wednesday's price of $378.25 each, Apple's 928 million outstanding shares are worth more than the combined share values of Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, DirecTV, Dell and Nokia.

Reckoned from 2000 until September 2011, the growth of Apple's stock is at an impressive rate of 44 per cent per annum, which dwarfs the less than 0.5 per cent growth of Standard & Poor's 500 index.

Besides millions of stockholders who have benefited directly from the growth in value of their holdings, millions more are expected to benefit from Apple's projected growth despite the death of Mr Jobs. That includes holders of mutual fund shares of Growth Fund of America, Fidelity Contrafund and Vanguard 500 Index fund, which have invested in Apple stocks.

Just to give an idea how holding on to Apple shares have boosted the bottom line of shareholders, an investor who paid $2,200 for 100 shares of the firm in December 1980 at its IPO price of $22, because of stock splits and growth, would now be holding 800 shares with a value of $302,600.

However, the company's stocks went down by more than five points in early trading in New York, which analysts explained to investor disappointment in the launch of the iPhone 4S, when they were expecting an iPhone 5.

"The stock price has been moving around since Steve Jobs resigned, and with all the legal battles Apple has been fighting against HTC and Samsung, the new model has been a much-awaited high moment for Apple," IDC senior research analyst for mobile handsets for Middle East and Turkey Hamza Salem told the Gulf News.

"With no iPhone 5 and with Steve Jobs gone, the speculation will be that Apple might lose its way in the near future," Mr Salem opined.

He said the burden is now on Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook's shoulder who has a different mindset compared to his predecessor and lacks technical knowledge how to create new products.

Prior to Mr Jobs's Wednesday death, analysts estimated Apple would earn $32.83 a share in fiscal 2012, which would represent a gain of 18 per cent from 2011 results.

They said the challenge for Mr Cook is to keep Apple's growth on track to prevent a drastic slide in the tech firm's stock value and for investors to be willing to pay a higher price compared with earnings.

RELATED STORIES