Microsoft had a market cap of $753.34 billion, beating out the iPhone maker's $746.82 billion in intra-day trade on Friday at the Nasdaq in New York.

The period was brief as Apple's market cap rose back up to $817.58 billion. Right behind it is Microsoft, which also increased to $791.19 billion.

However, the way things are going it is almost certain that Microsoft will beat Apple in the short term. Apple has a lot of unwelcome news to announce as its current batch of iPhones are tanking, and it has not come up with any new ideas since the tablet craze stalled.

Microsoft has been doing well by shifting to the cloud and is expected to coin in more money in coming results.