Market cap overview. Innovation pays out...

Here's a quick look at market capitalization evolution in the last 10 years .
Basically, you have:
1. the historical, forever here, stars that are now only getting back to levels they knew before the bubble bust in 2001: HP, IBM, MSFT. With a special mention for Adobe who is above its highest level
2. those who are not recovering: Yahoo and Ebay
3. and those way above: Google and Apple.

What has the 3rd category in common: they innovate in new sectors...

hardware
HPQ	133000	market cap equals 2000
IBM	150000	market cap equals 2001
AAPL	170000	more than 6 times market cap in 2000
software
MSFT	323000	market cap equals 2001
ADBE	25000	market cap slightly above highest point, was in 2001
internet
YHOO	34000	market cap still under 2005. never recovered from bubble burst
EBAY	45000	market cap is lower than 2004/05
GOOG	223000	market cap at all time high
ETFC	1750	market cap crashed following mortgage market troubles