Apple

I just finished a trip to North Carolina and Florida, and as expected the iPhone was everywhere. If you aren’t an iPhone user, I’m sure you know someone who is. It was a game changer and expands of the old adage “Once you go Mac, you never go back”.

During my flight home, I was thinking about Apple success and it’s inevitable switch from underdog to favorite. It’s rise and the current cellphone battle between Apple, Blackberry, etc is the best proof that competition, in an uncorrupted form, does produce greatness. Does anyone think Ma Bell could have gotten us an iPhone?

As a devoted iPhone and Apple follower one might be forced to look negatively at their competition. Quite the contrary, we should hope that Palm and the others do their bast to force Apple to continue innovating.

Check out the new Droid ad for further proof:

iPhone 2.0

When I first got the iPhone in early July 2007, it was a necessary research expense.  Only by sampling the features and, most importantly, its ease of use could I determine the prudence of increasing my AAPL stake.  By testing it frequently using my 2, 4 and eight year olds as test subjects, I knew that Apple would dominate the cell phone market.  So when it was down from $200 to mid $120s in February and March, I quickly bought some more AAPL.

The financial aspect of the iPhone settled, I switch my focus to its suitability for non-tech savvy boomers.   The iPhone is a great product whose features will come easy for any Blackberry addict.  The rub, as with many technological advances, is that you have to read the instructions.  Smartly, Apple has a multitude of great videos that replace the usual written manuals.

That being said, the iPhone learning curve is shorter than a Blackberry, but because more use Blackberrys, for now, it is easier to get hands on help from peers.