27 January 2010: Apple unveils the iPad
Steve Jobs introduced the iPad, a tablet starting at $499. Skeptics called it an oversized iPhone and mocked the name. Apple sold millions within months, created a category that earlier tablets from rivals had failed to sell, and squeezed the netbook market out of existence. The lesson for investors was familiar: Apple was rarely first, but it was often the one that made the idea work.
The lesson: Being first to market matters far less than being the first to get it right.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in Apple at the start of 2010 → $33,333 today, vs $6,071 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 2010, the year it happened. That is 33.3 times the money, and $27,262 more than a plain index fund made over the same years.
What Apple teaches: The best returns often come from companies that looked finished; Apple was a near-bankrupt also-ran in 1997, which is exactly why it was cheap.
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | $7.50 | $33,333 | $6,071 |
| 2012 | $14.70 | $17,007 | $5,312 |
| 2015 | $27.00 | $9,259 | $3,301 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
What if you bought Apple? Every starting year and the full story →
More Apple history
- 2 January 2019: Tim Cook writes a letter nobody wanted to read
- 9 January 2007: Steve Jobs unveils the iPhone
- 24 January 1984: The Macintosh goes on sale
- 1 April 1976: Apple is founded, and one co-founder cashes out early
- 11 April 1976: The Apple I goes on sale for $666.66
- 24 April 2015: The Apple Watch arrives
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
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