iPod Phone and Nano
September 7th, 2005So I just sold half of my shares of Apple, taking a nice 500% gain while the market is hot. I bought most of my shares just after Sept. 11, 2001 and have been fortunate to ride the whole iPod wave. I’m a dedicated Apple user and I bought my first iPod soon after the initial release of the version 1 product.
Today Apple announced the mobile iPod version which looks pretty cheesy in my opinion. Of course, I also hated the original iMac when it first came out (but then decided it was cool) and I’m usually not a good judge of the success of Apple products. Anyway, the Motorola phone just doesn’t look right to me; it doesn’t even have the standard Apple iPod font on the screen, making it look just like a Dell DJ or any other system. Essentially you’re buying the iPod “software” on a phone, you would think it would look like the original version that Apple puts on its own iPods! But the cell phone market is HUGE, much bigger than the MP3 player market will ever be, and this is a great opportunity to grow marketshare for Apple’s device.
The iPod Nano looks amazing, almost like it’s from the distant future! This definitely isn’t something I’d be interested in (my music library is currently close to 20GB!) but I drool over it nonetheless. Seems like a winner, can’t wait until you can upgrade the software to play video 
In the end, this seems like a nice local maximum (like my use of Calculus?) in the stock price and I’m happy to have gotten out at $49.10 a share. I’m still bullish on the stock but definitely glad to take some gains while I’m in school and my income is low (gotta minimize those taxes ya know!).
