(Image Source: Tuaw ) BY JEREMY TRUITT The golden child of the tech world has been knocked off its pedestal as the world’s most valuable company — by an oil titan. That’s right, Apple has been overtaken by the oil company Exxonmobil as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company. The Los Angeles Times reports that while Apple may not technically be the largest company, it’s not so much fast growth in Exxon as it is a plummeting price in Apple that led to the switch. “Apple's stock has taken a pretty serious knee-capping this week, compounding a slide that began in September. And as a result, Exxon is once again king of the stock markets.” In a single sentence, CNBC says the slide has been... let’s say “significant.” “52-week low on Apple. It has lost $246 billion in market cap since it’s peak” Bloomberg highlights the fact that Apple still has a market cap of $412 billion, and says “The switch in rankings reflected fading confidence in Apple, whose 15 years of transformation...helped it become the most valuable U.S. company ever in 2012.” Apple’s shares have fallen 37 percent since September amid concern that mounting costs and competition may curb growth. The switch with Exxon then is more about the old adage, “slow and steady wins the race.” According to YCharts, Exxon’s market cap has hovered close to a $400 billion for the past 5-years. This is compared to a momentum for Apple that saw it’s market cap go from roughly $120 billion to over $600 billion, and now down again in the same time frame. Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money offers some colorful advice for the tech company, saying they could be losing touch with the younger generation. “If you’re going to win the younger generation, and you must...you need to talk to kids like my kids. And they now think that Apple is old. Not repulsive like a Hewlett Packard, not repugnant like a Dell, just old.” While Exxon and Apple are sure to continue their struggle for top-spot, the third place company is fighting for a larger market cap as well, and that’s the one and only Google.