As the most valuable company in the world, it would be churlish to call Apple’s past decade anything other than a great success story.
According to data from Morningstar, Apple has delivered an annualised return of 32.5% over the 10 years. £1,000 invested in January 2007 would be worth £16,650 today.
Accounting for around two-thirds of its revenues, the iPhone must go down as one of the most triumphant tech inventions in history.
A Bank of America Merrill Lynch note today points out that, even after a financials rally, the size of all the banks in the eurozone and Japan combined still lags behind the market cap of the combined might of Apple and its tech cousin Alphabet (Google).
| Company | Return on £1,000 over 10 years |
| Apple Inc | £16,649.96 |
| BlackBerry Ltd | £237.29 |
| Nokia Oyj ADR | £ 589.42 |
| Samsung Electronics Co Ltd | £3,133.02* |
*US shares used for consistency.
Still, analysts grumble about Apple’s more recent revenue and share price drops, a perceived slowdown in innovation and the non-appearance of the iCar.
“iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone,” cited Steve Jobs, Apple’s then-CEO, on the smartphone’s unveiling. It wasn’t an exaggeration.
“The product that went on sale in the US later that year in June became massively disruptive to the mobile phone industry, making the device category of ‘smartphone’ a commonly used term, and created mayhem for the incumbent handset manufacturers of the time,” said Jeremy Gleeson, manager of the AXA Framlington Global Technology Fund.
