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The iPhone turns 10

It is the 10 year anniversary of the unveiling of the first iPhone to the public. Obviously the design team and the top management had seen the product and had worked with it before the unveiling. For us mere mortals however, it was the first time that we had glimpsed the future. At the time I remember not thinking too much of the product. I met a fellow shortly after who had an iPhone 1, the original version. The first iPhone I ever had was the 3G version. Since then ..... I have been hooked and become a bigger part of the Apple ecosystem. Before that, I only managed to own an iPod, remember those? I may frame it, use it for art or something like that.

The iPhone is the most successful consumer product of all time. July 27 2016 was the day that many consider total unit sales ticked over to 1 billion - Apple celebrates one billion iPhones. 50 million by April 2010, 500 million by June 2014. Obviously, as more people get the product and prefer it to others, the "refresh" cycle means that more and more people get it. I noticed that the contracts have become a little more complicated and imaginative.

Apple has got an official release from their website - iPhone at ten: the revolution continues. Unlike a socialist revolution (where technology is stifled), this is raw capitalism. In that time, since the iPhone birth, the market cap of Apple (according to Google finance) has gone up 870 percent, nearly a ten bagger in ten years, which as most investors know is an exceptional feat.

With a market capitalisation currently of 635 billion Dollars, the quest in the race for the trillion Dollar market cap continues. Who knows what device, wearable or not, will be adopted at the same rate as the most successful product of all time. And to think that the vast majority of smartphone users out there do not have this fine product, it is a "rich people" product at many levels. We maintain our buy recommendation on the company, the fundamentals are certainly favourable, and if you strip out the 240 odd billion Dollar cash pile, you get some pretty exciting metrics. With the "new form" apparently coming this year, it is going to be fun to see what the consumer adoption rate is likely to be. Hey Carl, how is that sale of Apple going?


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