Apple is now the second largest company listed on the S&P 500 index.

Apple reached a market cap of $241.5 billion; when trading stopped Thursday, Microsoft's market capitalization was $239.5 billion. That put Apple in second behind Exxon.

Technically speaking, only about 87% of Microsoft's shares are publicly traded so they are still bigger, but Apple is coming on strong.

With their strong line up of iPods, iPhones, iPads, and Macs, Apple is clearly the technology leader. These Apple products are hot, hot, hot. Even my 10 year old son knows that Apple and Steve Jobs are at the top of their game as he explained to me recently.

Microsoft's Windows is still on about 90% of computers worldwide, but their numbers are dropping slowly but surely. Microsoft will be around for a long time to come; however, they are becoming like General Electric.

Microsoft is almost always number one or two in every sector that they invest or buy into but they are having a hard time leading the pack with new, cutting edge products that comes from their own design, engineering, and creative operations.

Apple received a big push on Tuesday when they reported a profit increase of 90 percent and an increase of 49 percent in revenue. Microsoft was unimpressive when it reported a 35 percent increase in profit and 6 percent jump in revenue.