If You Purchased Apple Stock Instead of Apple Products

Apple stock is currently at $350 a share, which is 40 times more than what one share was worth only 7 years ago. If you’ve purchased a few Apple products over the years, you could have made quite a bit of cash had you spent your money on Apple stock instead. For example, if you bought a Power Macintosh G4 in 2000 ($1,699) and instead had put that money toward Apple stock, your stock today would be valued at $53,505.

Computer science student Kyle Conroy figured out how much money you’d have today if you had bought Apple stock instead of Apple products, and the results may make some of us cringe. In 2004 I bought a 12” PowerBook G4 for college ($1,599 brand new at the time). It had a good run and I ended up selling it 3 years later on craigslist for around $500. According to Kyle Conroy’s chart, if I had put that $1,599 into Apple stock instead, today that stock would be valued at $30,540.

Unfortunately we can’t all go back in a “time machine,” but Kyle’s chart is still interesting to see. Popular products like the original iPhone from 2007 ($499) and iPod Shuffle ($99) would be valued at $1,460 and $831 in Apple stock today.

(Images: Flickr member Josh Russell licensed for use under Creative Commons, The New York Times)

[Kyle Conroy via The New York Times]

Comments (6)

Now all the Apple fans can brag about the resale value of their STOCK, as well ;)

But if no one bought the products the stock wouldn't be valued that high.

Last time I checked, this site was called unpluggd.com and was about smart technology at home.

first visit in a long time, eh? ;)

That Power Macintosh G4 is pretty damn close to my experience with Apple stock. Bought some in 2000 and more in 2002 (avg. of $12.13/sh) and still have most of it... just kicking myself I sold 20% of my shares when the stock got up to $45 in 2005.

I sometimes wonder if sites post somewhat off-topic Apple stories to bait those who are, shall we say, less than enthusiastic of and ticked off about the success of Apple. After all, catching this very vocal minority is like shooting fish in a barrel :)