A modest suggestion from friend-of-the-blog Paul Lane:
Good morning, Philip
Like most of your subscribers I have owned shares in Apple for many years. It is my largest investment and (fingers crossed) will continue to handsomely fund my retirement.
In return, I support Apple in my own way by…
- always buying the latest iPhone and iPad for myself and my wife
- ditto for the Apple Watch
- regularly updating our iMacs and laptops
- buying Apple Care
- subscribing to Apple One
- etc.
The impact on Apple of these actions may be minuscule, but I feel it’s the least I can do. As a bonus, my wife and I get to own and enjoy the latest Apple products. In addition, by showing off our new acquisitions to friends and colleagues, we’ve probably helped Apple make some extra sales.
Just as importantly, I find a way to sell our year-old iPhones. They always command prices that substantially offset the cost of the new ones. I have done this with a dozen iPhones since our original iPhone 3GS, which means I have made a non-trivial contribution towards the iPhone’s growing installed base. Same with various iPads and Watches.
I would like to encourage my fellow Apple 3.0 investors to consider doing the same. Why hold on to your iPhones or iPads for years? You can afford to buy the new ones with the generous returns of your Apple investment. Grow the installed base and act as a mobile showroom with Apple’s latest and greatest in your hands and on your wrist.
My take: Is there another company that inspires such loyalty in its investors?
As long as we are shareholders, will continue to use iTunes instead of Spotify, and will be first adopters with pretty much every new product.
Years back I joked to my family that I was taking money out of one pocket and getting back in my other pocket 🙂
May I suggest another?
We start an on-line petition opposing the current proposed legislation, with the goal to reinforce that we want to keep the walled garden. We don’t want added risks and complexity.
Clearly this idea needs expertise I lack and a much bigger forum.
This morning AAPL Opened at its intraday low (so far) and promptly set a new all-time high. I normally watch AAPL’s Opening prints for an hour, maybe two, before jumping in. Seeing AAPL set a new all-time high right out of the gate I purchase AUG 20 $148/$149 Call Spreads @ 68¢, only to watch AAPL almost immediately set a new intraday low.
Thankfully I didn’t have the courage of my convictions and only invested half of my strategy’s recommended amount. With these contracts selling for 52¢ I ordered more. Currently, the Bid/Ask midpoint is 53¢. Successfully bought my basis will lower to 60¢ per contract. ROI for this week with the new order (should AAPL Close above $149 on Friday) will be ~63%. Fingers crossed.
UPDATE: 2nd Order filled.
Cook looked at the ground, paused for a brief moment, and replied simply, “I think if you could be an evangelist for the company and its products, that would be the best thing everyone could participate in.” — or words to that effect.
I think that not only do most all Apple 3.0 subscribers align with this statement, so does most of Apple’s IB.
Buying all the bright ‘n shiny toys is just a given — 😉 Been doing that for years.
Since 1987. Mac Plus, Imagewriter II
I think a 14″ MacBook Pro with M-series chip will be very tempting.
If there is ~10″ iPad with a smaller bezel, that will be tempting, too.
One way to stay wealthy is to not buy things that you do not need. But in the end, I send a lot of money elsewhere. Corporations are not people. They really don’t need our help.
And I had an Apple logo sticker on the back of my Prius. Now that we have a new Prius I have to find a sticker for it.
I sometimes wear a hoodie with a picture of Clarus the dog-cow. Kids just think it’s cute. Sometimes people my age smile in recognition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogcow
Then the haters pull out all the old, tired tropes “too much money, expensive, poor value, overpriced, not smart enough, techie enough, frugal enough, only for young teens or old people, sheeple, so/too loyal they’ll buy anything Apple, Apple is a niche player, Android is overwhelmingly the most popular choice, Apple has gotten too big to ever grow again, there’s no innovation, never first, so what if they have the best/fastest custom silicon – specs aren’t everything these days, notch, chin, too many colors, not enough choice, too many choices, ugly Watch, I can buy a copy for less/third/half the price that functions the same, extended/updated iOS support (to now 5-6 years) is overrated, I’ll just buy a new phone every 2-3 years if I want the latest Android OS, Apple will never dominate, Apple is too powerful, too dominating, people need more choice than Apple allows, Apple makes too much money, is too successful, somehow Apple shouldn’t be able to make that much money, etc. etc.”
Chime in with yours. Oh yeah, Apple is doomed.
“I think subconsciously people are remarkably discerning. I think that they can sense care.”
— Jonathan Ive
…and they will pay for that sense of truly caring.