Back in November 11, 1997, Apple released the Apple PowerBook G3 250. The then state of the art notebook cost a whopping $5,700. Expensive yes, but it made you the envy (or laughing stock) of your friends for awhile. Today, a PowerBook G3 isn’t good for much more than a paperweight.
What if, instead of spending that $5,700 on a new Apple product in 1997, you put the money into Apple (AAPL) stock instead? If you did that, you wouldn’t have a paperweight today but you would be sitting on over $330,000 of Apple stock!
Kyle Conroy has put together a little graph showing what would have happened had you purchased the AAPL instead of the many products Apple launched over the years. It’s pretty fascinating stuff.
Last month, I made a post saying I purchased a large block of Apple shares when the iPad went on pre-order. I picked up those shares at an average price of $224.
Last Tuesday at 9AM, I purchased another block of AAPL at an average price of $245. At 5PM the same day, Apple announced record breaking earnings that blew everyone away. The next day, the stock went to $260. Apple closed at $270.83 on Friday.
While I am really happy Apple iPad owner, I am an ever happier Apple shareholder. My advice: buy the product and the stock!