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My speech from the Apple Investor Summit

Cody Willard

May 2, 2012 — 1 min read

The markets are down fractionally and tech is soft. Sure wish I sensed more panic out there so I’d feel more comfortable making a stand right here. Alas, as is so often the case when it comes to your money, the best trades are often the ones we don’t make. I’ve nibbled some on the long side in the last few days and I’m letting the portfolio sit for now. One more whoosh down and I’d likely be aggressive on the long side like we were back at the bottoms last summer and fall. Patience, patience.

In the meantime, I wanted to share with you the recent speech I gave at the 2012 Apple Investor Summit where I was sandwiched in between keynote speakers, Steve Wozniak (the co-founder of Apple) and Walter Isaacson (Steve Jobs’ biographer). I broke my speech down into three parts. Here’s the first part, which is all about the importance of the Apple eco-system and how the eco-system is key to Apple’s future.

Apple’s built a platform for the iOS and the Mac and the iPhone and iPad and they are cleaner and easier to use than anybody else’s (read: Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows/xBox, RIMM’s latest platform building attempts, Amazon’s Kindle/retail platform, etc).

That platform has attracted so many developers and so many consumers that it’s hit critical mass. That attraction of both developers and consumers becomes a positive feedback loop as more consumers come to the platform because more developers are creating products and apps for that platform. As the platform’s base of users and developers grows, Apple’s clout with content providers (read: Hollywood shows and movies, mainstream media news, etc) grows. And as consumers buy Apple-supplied content and products, some of which only work on other-Apple-based products, the consumers become locked in to Apple.

Watch the speech for much more detail and explanation of these concepts and how the apply to Apple and why they are so important to the future of Apple’s stock.