Apple’s shares rose to a record high on Friday and the company’s market value surpassed US $600 billion  as investors look forward to the launch of a new iPhone and possibly a smaller iPad, as well as a new television product.

Apple stock hit $645.48 in intraday trading, before settling at to $645.02. That was up $8.68, or 1.4 percent, from Thursday’s close.

Apple has a market value of about US $605 billion. Apple’s stock fell last month after the company’s earnings report for the last quarter showed the slowest growth in more than two years. It was only the second time in 10 years that Apple had missed analyst expectations.

Apple is reportedly gearing up for the September 12 launch of the next version of  iPhone, and might also unveil the highly speculated smaller version of its iPad, dubbed the iPad mini.

Apple watchers believe Apple wants to make a cheaper tablet computer to counter the threat of the Google Nexus and Amazon Kindle Fire, both of which sell for $199 and Microsoft Surface which could have a similar price tag.