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Apple Computers is 50 Years Old. Hurrah! · Mark and Pete

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  Apple Computers is 50 years old. Hurrah.
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  Welcome to Mark and Pete. And here we have a story of
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  investment gone wrong. Well, this is Mark and Pete 2
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  blokes with half an opinion. Now here's our first thought.
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  From the tree of technology growth, an apple at its very
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  core is something folk do adore. They say an apple every day
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  keeps all the data hard at play. An apple that gets a lot of use
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  may eventually run out of juice. An apple consumes lots of bites
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  from a bunch of app delights, and the lovely apple of your eye
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  sees sales soaring extremely high.
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  Well, that may be the case. Yes, the Apple is 50 years of
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  age. Well, right back back at the
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  beginning. Yes, of course, Steve Wozniak
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  and yes, Steve Jobs. Yes, you remember this is the
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  revolution technology that certainly for most people have
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  got them all in their pockets or at home or possibly even at
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  work. Now Mr. Pete, when we look at to
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  what Steve Jobs and colleagues did, there was one particular
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  error that was made by an investor.
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  Many people might not be familiar with Ron Wayne.
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  Now, why is this so significant when we celebrate 50 years of
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  Apple? Well, poor old Ron Wayne, not to
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  be confused with John Wayne, completely different individual,
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  but strangely almost as involved with the development of Apple.
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  Because yes, poor old Ron Wayne was one of the one of the
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  founders of Apple, was he not? Oh yes, but only for only around
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  for 12 days. It may have been a mistake to
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  pull out. It may, I mean may have been a
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  mistake. Suppose so.
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  Perhaps an understatement. If.
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  What you're talking about is return on investment because he
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  became a little bit scared, nervous, uttery, one might say,
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  and that led to it might. What do you think?
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  It's possibly the biggest miscalculation in investments in
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  history. I don't know if we go that far,
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  but. I think we should explain, yes,
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  well Ron Wayne was one of the advisers to the Wozniak and Jobs
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  and it was definitely something as a a possible opportunity of a
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  $2300 investment at the time. Now as you say, he got a little
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  bit jittery because he felt that potentially there were some
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  liabilities that could actually impact him.
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  Now when we move time on, of course, as we all know that
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  Apple definitely succeeded. Well today, had Ron Wayne still
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  retained his stake, it would now be worth $370 billion.
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  Now that's quite a lot of money for anyone, for that matter.
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  Having said that, I can see that his decision seems to be or
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  would have seen at the time the correct one.
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  I think we would both have agreed with him.
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  He made this investment, but then as you say, he had possible
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  exposure because he because he had shares in the company such
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  that he might have lost his house or his savings.
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  So why take that risk, you know, on this rather disreputable
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  looking set up, I mean, why take the risk and you can see that
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  unwillingness to take a risk. Did it cost him money?
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  Well, it cost him potential money of that huge amount that
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  you said there's a Bible verse about using your talents and one
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  the one person who's given the talents by the Lord, you know,
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  representing God in the, in the story in the Bible, one of them
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  just buries his talent in the ground and then doesn't do
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  anything with it. And he doesn't take the
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  investment. He doesn't want to take the
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  risk. And this is whereas someone who
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  uses the the talent they have the talent in this case being
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  money, you know, it's used figuratively to mean abilities
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  these days. But the actual story is using
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  money to help and investing it in something that then produces
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  not just a profit, but success. You know, building the Kingdom
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  as it put in the Bible or or in this case, providing people with
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  Apple computers, which for much, I don't know really want how
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  much we want to go to this into this.
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  But I would say for much of its of its life as a company have
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  been innovative and great quality products.
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  Maybe. Not so much.
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  Today. Well, I think that one of the
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  things we ought to note is, of course, we today definitely look
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  upon Apple as one of the most important manufacturers and
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  producers of products, technological products
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  throughout the world. But of course, in the beginning,
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  it took a while to take off the original Apple computers as they
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  were sort of folding did take a long time and they were very
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  expensive or perceived to be expensive.
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  And so that was really one of the challenges.
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  Now of course, they also went public as well.
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  So the share price were sort of fluctuated quite dramatically.
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  And I think we we ought to mention as well is that Steve
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  Jobs, albeit that again was absolutely fundamental in the
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  beginning, fell out of favour with the Apple board.
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  And it wasn't until we got into the 1990s that we saw that they
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  started to re evaluate their products and actually did
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  something which I think was really cutting edge.
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  Now, of course, when we think about the home, if you look in
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  anybody's home, you've probably got a computer and almost
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  certainly you may have an Apple, whether it be an iPhone or
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  whether it be a laptop or something else.
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  But at the time, in the 70s and early 80s, most people didn't
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  have a computer in their home. But of course, making it much
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  more affordable and attractive, the visual look of the computer.
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  And Jobs was very much a visionary.
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  Well, yes, I think this is the key thing.
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  I mean, the key change in thinking was originally under
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  Steve Rudd Wozniak, who was the sort of technical brains behind
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  it, I would say. At least that's what he says.
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  But no, he was he was the guy who had the the real technic in
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  depth technical, Oh yes, was produce a computer for for
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  people who were computer enthusiasts.
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  You had loads of different ports that you could plug different
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  different other gadgets into. You had a memory that could be
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  added to. In fact, everything could be
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  added to. That was the beauty of it.
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  And Steve Jobs, his change in that was to say, no, we just
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  make it simple so we could just plug it in and use it.
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  That was the genius move. Well, I think there was another
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  genius move. Many people forget this, but
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  basically in 1997, Jobs made peace with his longtime rival,
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  yes, Bill Gates, and he worked out a deal that included 150
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  million cash infusion to the Windows maker.
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  Now, of course, this was rather significant because it did open
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  up the opportunity for the iMac. And of course, very much a
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  little bit later, Jobs introduced the iPod.
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  Do you remember that? The music storage device,
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  probably some people have got them scuttled away in a drawer
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  somewhere. But the fact is, what you
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  started, what you started to see is then the emergence of the
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  iPhone because all of the devices, it's one device
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  basically, not multiple devices. The iPhone basically changed the
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  game, yes. And I guess the, the
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  presentation of that when he was presenting it to the, the Apple
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  staff, but it, you know, it was broadcast when they, he was
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  saying, and we've got 3 new products.
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  It's, it's a phone, it's a music device and it's an Internet
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  browsing device. It's a phone, it's a it's music,
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  it's Internet browsing. And he kept and on the screen
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  the three devices were moving round and then it he said, do
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  you see what it is yet or it's a worse than effect?
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  And it was just one device. And so, yeah, the, the iPod, a
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  phone and and then your, your computer access to the Internet
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  were all in your hand. Yeah.
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  But again, this move was simplifying Steve's.
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  Steve Jobs's genius was thinking in in the way that the consumer
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  would think. Not a computer or gadget
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  enthusiast. What do they want?
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  They want it all at hand, easy to use, and you just have to
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  press a button. And eventually, of course, that
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  became just press the screen. And then that Genius grew as a
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  Apple beyond all recognition. Massive company, big valuation
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  as you say, and it changed the way that we interact not just
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  with the computers and the Internet, but with each other.
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  Oh yes, yeah. Well, what's interesting
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  absolutely it's, but it's also become a device which it's
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  almost impossible now to, to navigate your way around the
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  world without having a mobile phone.
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  Now of course, I know iPhones are not the only phone.
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  So, but we are celebrating Apple.
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  There are over 3 billion iPhones that have been sold this century
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  alone. And what's interesting is, is
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  that since the Steve Jobs died, and of course we saw that there
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  was another big hero, still very much a champion of industry
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  today, Tim Cook. Tim took over the leadership of
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  this of this organization. And what we have to understand
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  is that Apple is worth 10 times more than its 350 billion market
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  value since Jobs died. So the point being is the
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  success of Apple is around his phones, it's around his
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  products, but it's also about the people behind it.
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  If you get the right leader and they've got a vision and they've
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  got a very good control of their operations, then you know that
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  you've got a chance. So I think, I think Mr. Pete,
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  what we're celebrating here is not just the technological
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  revolution, I think it's also a business revolution.
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  They're a very good organized, well organized company, got
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  their manufacturing base sorted out, got their distribution
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  right, and crucially got their branding right.
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  It's a very clean, consistent brand and everybody recognises
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  it. It's almost that desirable
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  device, isn't it? The one?
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  I know it's expensive folks, but you can't get away from the fact
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  that most people want one. What say you about the appeal of
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  an Apple? Oh man.