Taiwan-based HTC Corporation has a market capitalization of $33.9 billion. A very impressive figure, but it becomes even more so when you compare this number to two companies that were many times larger than HTC just a few years ago, as pointed out by All Things Digital.
HTC's market cap recently passed RIM's – currently at $28.5 billion – and this week edged out Nokia's, now at $32.8 billion. The company has been building and selling smartphones roughly as long as Nokia and RIM, but its early embrace of Google's Android has helped it grow to have a market value 30 times what it was five years ago. It has also chosen to support Windows Phone, but this new platform has yet to prove itself.
Market capitalization is the share price times the number of shares outstanding (shares that have been authorized, issued, and purchased by investors) of a publicly traded company. It is the public's opinion of a company's net worth, and is one of many ways to measure how a business is growing.
Just like pretty much any smartphone company these days, HTC is planning to enter the tablet market this year. The HTC Flyer (image, video) is a 7-inch tablet expected to ship this quarter.