Apple Inc. is an international corporation that designs, manufactures, and markets a range of mobile communication and media devices, personal computing products, and portable digital music players, as well as a variety of related software, networking solutions and hardware products. Apple is known for the Mac computer products, iPhones, iPads, and iPods. In the assets section of its 2011 balance sheet, the following data were presented:

Instructions
(a) For a company such as Apple, what do you think its most important economic resource is? Where is this recorded on the balance sheet? At what value (if any) should it be shown?
(b) Do the assets reported on the balance sheet above tell you what Apple is worth? What information does the balance sheet give you about the company's value?

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APPLE INC Balance Sheets (partial) in U.S. millions) September 24 2011 September 25, 2010 Cash and cash equivalents Short term Accounts receivable, less allowance Inventories Deferred tax assets Vendor non-trade receivables Other current assets Long term marketable securities Property, plant and equipment, net Goodwill Acquired intangible assets, net Other assets $ 9,815 16,137 5,369 776 2,014 6,348 4,529 55,618 7,777 896 3,536 3,556 $116,371 $11,261 14,359 5,510 1,051 1,636 4,414 3,447 25,391 4,768 741 342 2,263 $75,183 marketable securities Total assets