This is not meant to incite another tech debate, or to attack mac users (I don't think anybody has time for that nowadays). A friend of mine (who used to ridicule me for using a Powerbook in undergrad) sent me a link to a recent post on Gizmodo that features spreadsheet composed of Apple product pricing and release history, along with the present values of company stock purchased at that time. The reader may then compare the present-day value of, say, a ' 2004-iPod worth of APPL stock.'

This data is likely not be available from other computer manufacturers, which I guess is somewhat unfair, but Apple's historically rigid pricing structure and staggered release dates make it reasonably easy to find the exact product you may have purchased. I understand that there are methodological and economic questions that attach, but I thought this sort of thing was very interesting in light of Eben's assertion that Jobs is a salesman above all else.

Skip the blog post and go right to the table here.

by the way, that Powerbook and the iPod I got alongside it in 2004 would have been worth ~38K in APPL stock…

Good luck with the end of the semester!

-- JoshuaHochman - 26 Apr 2010