Apple - 15 years of iPhone

The 30 June is the 15th anniversary of the iPhone being on-sale (as opposed to announced). The launch of the iPhone - as much as the launch of the iPod - put Apple on the path to be the monster (sized) company it is today. Its >50% margin and high volume sales created massive profit that continued to grow at high rates for 10 or more years. It also laid the foundation for the iPad, one of the largest computing platforms available today (the iPad - at least initially - was essentially a large-screed iPhone at a price - at launch - that was viewed as great value). With the launch of iOS 2 the app store was ‘bolted on’ to iTunes unleashing a services profitability wave that was further expanded in iOS 3 to all the media types available today (more or less) and additional paid services to the present.

And while the iPhone is broadly stable in sales today (it appears to increase & decrease in update waves superimposed on a slowly growing base) it still spins-out vast profits for Apple to utilize moving forward. The ultimate ‘cash cow’.

2 Likes

The iPhone went on sale at 6pm on the 29th June. The 30th was the first full day it was on-sale. Due to lines (remember those) & far lower production volumes than today it was pretty tough to obtain an iPhone on the 29th.

1 Like

Thanks for the look back. I feel quite lucky as I bought my initial shares of Apple in 2/06 @$2.44 split-adjusted. Fortunately, I have not sold these shares and have added many times since , especially when Buffett was praising them adding quickly in 2016. Jobs and Cook have truly been tremendous leaders and innovators and have a way of keeping Apple frequently in the headlines. Feel fortunate to own a piece of this gem which does not seem to be fading anytime soon!

2 Likes