Apple Is A Great Company

Monday morning I spent some time at my local Apple store. My visit reminded me what a great company Apple is.

And before we dive in, I like to differentiate great companies from great investments. To me, there is a difference. I think of a great company as a company that provides an oustanding product, a fabulous customer experience, and one that has a well-loved brand.

Disney is a great company. Whether it’s a visit to a park or a Disney cruise, people rave about the Disney experience. And from Mickey and Minnie to Toy Story to the MCU, Disney, which owns Lucasfilms (Star Wars), Pixar, and Marvell, has fantastic content.

We’ll talk about great companies v. great investments in a sec, but let’s stick with great companies for now. So, does Apple make the cut?

Background

I made a big mistake a year or so ago. I was excited about the smaller iPhone SE. Why am carrying around a huge iPhone 11? Most of the time I use Siri and CarPlay. My eyes are going and I can’t see the screen, no matter how big, without reading glasses.

Seemed like a no-brainer.

Ever since I bought the SE, Siri regularly tells me to try later. And everything else on the phone seems to be just a bit more difficult than it was on my iPhone 11. I guess that’s why it was a $399 phone when new v. the other models that started at $799.

So after dealing with this for 16 months, I decided to move on.

My Morning at Apple

10am on Monday, I head to my local Apple store. I had done some comparisons online and Grok had helped me decide on which model to choose. I knew I could buy online and have the iPhone delivered to my front door in a couple of hours, but being an Apple shareholder, I wanted to check out the in-store experience.

I walked in, and the store was surprisingly busy. I walked to the first table and picked up an iPhone and within seconds, a young lady with an iPad asked me if I needed help or was just looking. I told her I wanted to buy and she asked my name and said there were 2 folks ahead of me.

There was no pressure, and it was nice to be noticed.

Twice while I roamed the store waiting my turn, the young lady tracked me down to let me know I was next in line, and then that it shouldn’t be much longer.

After about a 15 minute wait, Kevin found me and introduced himself. Kevin was very personable and helpful. I knew the model I wanted so we got right down to business, though he took me back to the iPhone table to make sure I saw all of the available colors for the model I chose.

2 things stood out.

1. Kevin was well-trained and enthusiastic. While we were waiting for his hand-held device to move my phone number to the new phone, he demonstrated some features that he thought I would like. He also answered my questions about the dynamic island and the action button that my old phone didn’t have.
2. The tech is awesome. Kevin had a handheld device that started the transfer to the new iPhone. It had all of my info and it initiated the carrier transfer and got the iPhone transfer started with a few taps.

On My Own

Kevin got the process started, then he sat me at a table to finish up on my own. He told me it takes about 15 minutes to transfer my data apps and settings from the old phone.

He also introduced Gabe who would be at the next table and would be available to help if I had any questions.

This is pretty smart. It puts me to work and keeps me busy and it lets Kevin move on to the next customer.

The transfer process was very simple. My iPhone told me exactly what to do.

The Store

As I’m waiting for the iPhones to do their thing, I look around a bit. The store is beautiful. It’s comfortable, modern, uncluttered. Apple associates have blue shirts and there are quite a few of them.

There is a table in back where an Apple associate is teaching a class on iPhone features.

I remember years ago my Mom bought an iMac. It seemed an odd choice for her. Her rationale was that she could take classes at the Apple store near her and whenever she had problems, she could stop by and someone would happily resolve them.

Everything about the store is inviting and un-intimidating. The Apple folks are attentive and helpful. Sometimes you have to wait, but there are comfortable places to sit and lots of cool stuff to look at.

iPhone

Apple is iPhone. They sell other stuff too, but iPhone is the biggee. They sell over 200 million every year.

There were 4 tables with iPhones. Each table has one of each current model on each side of the table. I walked around, picked up each model and tried it out.

One of the tables also had last year’s model. When I picked one up, it opened to a web page that compared features of the iPhone 16 to the iPhone 17. All of them did this. I bet that answers a lot of questions for shoppers.

No one has to take anything out of a locked display case. All the iStuff is out there for us to try.

This allows Kevin to help folks that are ready to buy. Pretty smart.

Uh Oh

Midway through my iPhone transfer, I’m on a new screen and the status bar isn’t moving. I look up to see where Gabe is, and before I can scan the room, another sales guy appears and asks how he can help. It’s like magic.

He tapped a few times and I was back in business and he was off to another customer.

And then again, I’m stuck entering some info, unsure of what option to choose. This time the check-in young lady comes to my rescue. She’s wandering around with her iPad, sees my panic and stops by. She answers a few questions on my iPhone screen and I’m off and running. Clearly she’s not just a check-in person. She’s been trained to help with technical problems.

I look around and because it is 10 am on a Monday, everyone has grey hair. Many of us forgot our passwords and we all have some questions about the transfer prompts. Apple experts are zipping by constantly and while busy with others, they always find time to stop and help.

Every Uh Oh is quickly resolved.

All Done

45 minutes after I arrived, I’m out the door with a new phone that has all my apps and data.

I can see why Apple sells 200 million iPhones every year. Tech can be intimidating. I had a fit earlier this year when my IOS upgrade went poorly and I had to reinstall all of my apps and re-enter a whole bunch of stuff. Knowing I can drive to an Apple store and have an expert help me is a big deal.

And the packaging is something. The iPhone box, the bag, and even the USB-C cable tie…a lot of thought went into making this feel like something special.

I dropped 800 bucks and I feel great about it.

So yes, I would say that based on my experience, Apple is a great company. Try going to a Comcast/Xfinity store, a Charter/Spectrum store, or another carrier’s store. The experience is quite different.

Apple differentiates itself with its products, brand and the overall experience.

Business?

But is it a great business?

A great business is a business that rewards shareholders. We’re capitalists, right? This is pretty simple.

And while Disney is generally considered a great company because of the parks, experiences and content, one could argue that it hasn’t been a great business, at least in the past 10 years or so.

It’s trailing the S&P 500 by a large margin, investors who bought in 2018, or even worse, 2021, have lost money on Disney, And the company paused its dividend in 2020 through 2024. So no, not a great business recently.

If we zoom out, the Disney story looks better, but still not as great as the S&P 500.

What About Apple?

The 10 year story looks pretty good.

And Apple is up over 9,500% in the last 20 years.

So yes, it seems like Apple is a great business.

Wrap Up

2 Thoughts for today.

First, I was incredibly impressed with the Apple store experience. The physical appearance was attractive, but the enthusiasm and helpfulness of the Apple associates really made the experience exceptional.

So that tells us that Apple is a good choice for buying tech stuff – just ask my mom.

But really the 2nd point is more important (to me). Apple is a great business.

I’ve been thinking about this a bit recently. I bought Apple shares starting in the early 2000s. It is one of my largest holdings and has been a fantastic investment. I’ve sold some shares along the way, but the shares I have remaining are up over 8,000%.

That’s awesome, but Apple underperformed the S&P 500 last year. Does that mean it’s lost its edge? Is it still a great business?

And that’s a question we, as investors need to ask regularly. Apple has been a fabulous investment for 20 years. Will it be a fabulous investment for the next 20?

While we never know the answer to that question, in order to leave our capital invested, we need to be committed to the idea that Apple can outperform.

One of the ways to do this is to do some boots-on-the-ground research. My visit on Monday made me confident that Apple is still selling a lot of iPhones. Apple is also investing in its stores and its people to maintain its reputation for excellent customer service.

That’s a good start. I also read (skimmed) their recent 10-k, which interestingly came out today, and I read a few analyst reports.

So, the data tells me that Apple looks like a pretty good investment, but visiting the store made me feel great about staying invested in Apple for the long-term.

(Spoiler: We’re humans. Most of us react more to feelings than fact.)

This is the great thing (to me) about investing in great American companies and investing in the S&P 500.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve visited Apple, Starbucks, Walmart, and Home Depot. All are companies in which I’m invested. I’ve also interacted with T-Mobile, Visa, MasterCard, Booking.com, Roku, Tesla, Google, and National Grid. All have been positive experiences.

In 2020, I got quite excited about Lemonade, an insurance company. I lost my shirt and sold all my shares but remained a customer. In 2024, when they seemed to get their automation working, I bought back in. I’m now even.

Having the ability to test-drive the companies in which we invest is a huge advantage.