My Apple Family

MacBook, iPod nano, iPod touch, iPhone 4S, and iPad2

There's the saying, "you can choose your friends but not your family." Well,  I got to choose my second family, and they go by one name (like Prince or Madonna), Apple.  


I bought my first apple product in undergrad and it was a first generation iPod. Like any family member, we had problems from the beginning. It would constantly freeze or not sync up my music; therefore, I was an unhappy Apple user. 


Fast forward two years later, and my perception changed........


I took a quiz to find what brand of computer would fit my needs best, and Apple won. Then I took the quiz to find out which Mac computer would be most compatible with me, and the MacBook won. Then I purchased an iPod touch. Then came the iPad2. Then iPod Nano. And to complete the family, I got an iPhone 4S this week. 


The transition of going from a PC computer to an Apple, was one of the smartest decisions I ever made. I yell at my computer a 1000x less. I did not worry about it freezing up or a virus destroying everything in sight. Additionally, the transition from my Droid phone to iPhone was THE smartest decision! I never realize how crummy of a phone a Droid was until I got the iPhone. Plus with the amaziness of iCloud, my phone is even more amazing.


As you are reading this blog posting, you may be thinking "Wow, it seems as if she has been brainwashed." And you may be right. Apple is one of the leading companies that has a cult following. I truly believe once you go Apple, you can never go back. Below is a snippet from an article titled, "7 Companies With Cult Followings." To read the full article click on this link: http://money.msn.com/investing/7-companies-with-cult-followings

Apple: Home of the iCult

The buzz is simple: Apple (AAPL) products look sexy. Consumers feel better just carrying them. "I don't know anybody who says, 'Boy I just love my Dell,'" quips Stuart, at the University of Maryland, who describes iCult loyalty as "the church of Apple."

But much-loved products are only the starting point. To achieve cult status, a company has to deftly weave a bigger message about lifestyle into the mix. With Apple, it was "think different," a popular company slogan, says Turkle, at MIT. "Apple is very good at this."

Apple is also great at creating communal experiences, another hallmark of a cult company, says Tim Maleeny, head of strategic planning at Ogilvy & Mather, an advertising agency. A good cult company never seems like it is selling you anything, he says. "What they are really doing is celebrating something. In Apple's case, it might be the release of a new product. There's always the sense of 'we are in it together.'"

With Apple, the shared experience runs deep, because the company has created a broad ecosystem of products that use the same technology. They can easily share content with other Apple products -- and nothing else. Apple is now extending this ecosystem with iCloud, which lets consumers store digital content on Apple servers. Once consumers start using this system, it's hard to break out. And judging by preorders for the new iPad, no one wants to anyway.

For investors, all this means Apple stock still looks cheap even though it is trading near all-time highs, says Dan Morris, who owns the stock in the Manor Growth Fund (MNRGX), where he is a portfolio manager. The death of Steve Jobs won't change this near term, since he built a team of top managers who shared his values, said Scanlon, of the John Hancock Balanced Fund, which holds the stock. "There are plenty of people in place who know how to carry his vision forward."