The Cody Word
  • July 25, 2008 10:46 AM EDT by Cody Willard

    Buy AAPL: Remember When Apple Screwed Motorola with the iTunes ROKR phone?

    I've long called the iPhone, the iTrojanHorse.  Since Apple's basically delivered an iMiniMacBookPro for your pocket, and since you can talk on your MacBookPro using VoIP technologies like Skype and Vonage...what's to stop iPhone users from bypassing the cell networks almost entirely as WiFi becomes ever more ubiquitous?

    It's not as if Apple's not Trojan Horsed a major partner of theirs before, after all.  Remember when it looked like Steve Jobs was going to start licensing iTunes to other handset makers?  Remember the Motorola ROKR: The Motorola ROKR E1 (pronounced /ˈrɒkɚ/ "rocker") is the first mobile phone to be integrated with Apple Inc.'s iTunes music player. It was launched on September 7, 2005 during a special media-only event by Apple in San Francisco, California.

    How'd that partnership work out for Apple and Motorola subsequent to the rollout of the ROKR before Apple truly Trojan Horsed Motorola and rolled out their own handset (the iPhone!) just a couple years later after getting all that expertise and those lessons from their "partner" Motorola.  AAPL is up 250% since then.   Motorola, down 60% plus.

    Ya think there's anger from Motorola at Apple?  Sour grapes for sour Apples.

    And the upshot of this analysis of course, is that you should stick with AAPL the stock, because these guys know how to win.  And that's what you like when you look for a long-term investment, after all.

about this blog

  • Cody Willard is an anchor on the FOX Business Network. Willard is also the principal of an investment management company. He was a long-time featured columnist for the Financial Times and TheStreet.com as well as a regular featured economist and stock picker on CNBC's ''Kudlow & Company."

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