Investing in Apple back then would have been like investing in a startup--investing in the engineering culture that made Mac OS X, not the product line itself.

Investing in Apple back then would have been like investing in a startup--investing in the engineering culture that made Mac OS X, not the product line itself. They were a company that secured a future from oblivion by making best-in-class stuff in a class with a huge upside for profit. I think a hacker could have seen potential that Wall Street did not. And, like a startup, they took a number of swings before hitting the iOS home run, except they were also turning a modest profit during the swings.