In a note to investors — as reported by “AppleInsider” (www.appleinsider.com) — Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White says that, after passing Microsoft’s record and becoming the most valuable company ever on Monday, Apple has passed a “key sentiment barrier” on its way to a US$1 trillion market valuation.

He notes that previous companies with market capitalization above $500 billion were already dominant in their markets. On the other hand, Apple still has a relatively small share in markets where it competes, so it still has enormous growth potential, White adds.

“For example, Microsoft, held over 90% market share for PC operating systems at the peak cap, while Intel had over 80% of the PC processor market and Cisco had over 70% share in the networking market,” he says. “On the other hand, IDC estimates Apple held just 4.7% of the PC market in (the first quarter of 2012) and 64.4% share in the mobile phone market in (the second quarter).”