![[Foolish] Why Didn’t I Think of That Earlier?](http://el-oso.net/blog/wp-content/plugins/ttftitles/cache/de189051df08dcf7b6cec93073d1dc48.png)
Posted 2 years, 7 months ago mid-afternoon by oso
I just got back from Centro Comercial Monterrey where I had to pick up a DV Firewire cable in order to transfer some digital video from casette to hard drive. At the store I noticed they were selling iPhones so, out of curiosity, I asked the price.
“1,800,000 pesos.”
That’s about $900.
And so I said that I had an iPhone. How much would be buy it off me for?
“1,500,000 pesos.”
That’s about $750.
The same day that I flew from Los Angeles to Medellin I met up with my GV buddies Mohamed and Gilad at the Apple store in Santa Monica. (Mohamed incidentally works for Al Jazeera while Gilad covers the Hebrew-speaking Israeli blogosphere for GV … and who says there’s no peace in the middle east. But anyway …) Mohamed was in the process of buying about four or five iPhones for his buddies back in Qatar. At the time, however, the limit was 2 iPhones per customer so Mohamed had to resort to his charming wink and million-dollar smile in order to walk out with more. This I did not understand. Why would Apple want to limit the number of products it sold? We’re not talking diamonds after all.
Well, actually, the market price of the iPhone is almost as convoluted. For each iPhone that Apple sells (for $400), it also receives $831 from AT&T. So, from someone like me who bought an iPhone and is also an AT&T user, Apple will receive $1,231. From Mohamed, who bought the iPhone and took it with him to Qatar, they only get $400. (Hence, when the iPhone is sold separately and not bundled with a cell phone contract, it goes for about $1,500.) Apple limited the number of iPhones it sold to any one person (like Mohamed) so that they wouldn’t take them to foreign places where Apple would receive one third the amount of money.
Now, why didn’t that occur to me that same day when I was standing in the Apple store with Mohamed and Gilad? If it had, I would have bought five iPhones myself, brought them down here to Colombia, and sold them for at least $800 each. That’s about a $2,000 earning which would have just about paid for my entire trip.
What did I do instead? I took a big chunk of my last three paychecks and invested in Apple stock when it was at $180 a share. Then it went up to $200 a share.
I was stoked.
And then it fell to $130 a share.
And I was not stoked. At all.
So what am I about to do now with the paycheck I just received? I’m going to put a third of it in Apple stock. Crazy, I know. But it’s just a matter of time until the success that Apple’s computer line has had recently in the United States starts to spread more in Asia and Latin America. Every day I’m bothered by two or three people at my local cafe who ask me where they can get a Mac. And, as my buddy Greg once pointed out, when the current generation of Mac-using college graduates start building their own businesses and corporations, they’re going to outfit them with the hardware and software they know. That is, Apple. That’s when we’ll start to see the Apple stock really take off.
What else am I going to do? The next time I travel out of the US, I just might stop by an Apple store and pick up a few iPhones first. Ironically, it’s that very plan that is probably responsible for the recent crash of the Apple stock. As long as people keep unlocking the iPhone, Apple’s iPhone revenue will keep falling. If Apple doesn’t start getting out into the global marketplace fast, then people like me will start doing it for them. (And cashing in on the process.)
Update and Related:
Are unlocked iPhones helping Apple?
Piper Jaffrey still bullish on AAPL
Safari 523.10.6 Mac OS X Safari 523.10.6 Mac OS X
I wish I had had foresight to grab about five phones when I headed to Uganda one week after the initial release weekend. I would have paid for my entire 3 month jaunt, if not more. Instead, the phone got more action than I did. (heh)
But I wasn’t quite as lucky that I didn’t buy stock at $200. I am planning to jump in at this fire sale. My dad however, totally missed shorting the stock during the nose dive. I’d have a fat inheritance by now. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait for that gravy train. At least it’s slowed down enough for me to jump on board and make my own fortune.
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.11 Windows Server 2003 Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.11 Windows Server 2003
A new listing in Facebook’s Marketplace (Cambodia) lets me know this:
APPLE I-PHONE 8GB…….$250USD; 6GB……$200USD; 4GB……$150USD; 3GB……$130USD. This is for bulk order only. The trader claims that he/she makes shipment through fedEx courier services and UPS. I find the price for the 4GB device unbelievably cheap, but value added tax is not mentioned.
My old Nokia 6260 is dead, so I may get iPhone if its consumer price is something less than $200.
Safari 523.10.6 Mac OS X Safari 523.10.6 Mac OS X
tms ruge,
Does that mean you’re bringing some over on the upcoming trip?
ThaRum,
Just make sure that it isn’t a scam … and we’ll be iPhone buddies.
Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.12 Windows XP Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.12 Windows XP
Yup. And there are always people willing to fork over big bucks to have the newest technology. Sounds like a plan to me!
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.11 Windows XP Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.11 Windows XP
wow! that’s an impressive margin. I think you may have just stumbled on a brilliant plan for truly (self) sustainable travel!
As for peace in the middle east, I think we’ll need a bit more than Peet’s coffee… but you never know!
WordPress 2.1.3 WordPress 2.1.3
[...] 我在閱讀 oso 的「笨蛋，我怎麼沒有早點想到」的時候，我突然懂了這份禮物的意義。如果用暗語來表達的話，就是我知道解答下一個問題的鑰匙在哪裡了。 [...]
Safari 523.10.6 Mac OS X Safari 523.10.6 Mac OS X
Gilad,
It was Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf! But know that you mention Peet’s – I think that might be the best road map to peace I’ve heard of an a long time.
Ilya,
I wish I read Chinese!
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.11 Windows Vista Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.11 Windows Vista
Dawood…
erm.. 50/50 .. besides .. I need the money more than you do. I will bankroll this operation
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.11 Mac OS X Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.11 Mac OS X
Estoy celosa del iPhone. Tengo que abandonar a verizon. Si te quedó algo de $$ invertilo en Goldspring -GSPG- on the OTC market, pero ESTA semana, porque va a seguir subiendo. Saludos a Juan Valdez.
WordPress 2.3 WordPress 2.3
[...] friend David Sasaki (the venerable Outreach Director of GVO) has not only documented my shmoozing of the Santa Monica Apple Store staff, but has also brought up something I’m [...]
Safari 523.15 Mac OS X Safari 523.15 Mac OS X
ThaRum,
That’s a scam. iPhones only come in 4gig, 8 gig and 16 gig. That’s a dead give away that this is a scam if they can’t even get the basic tech specs correct!
David,
I have a huge list of people waiting for their iPhones for all of my 2008 trips. I don’t know how I am going to do that with a 2-phone limit. Guess I’ll have to use diff CCs.
WordPress abc WordPress abc
[...] a year, we spent our first 15 minutes of rendezvous talking about Drupal. You might recall that the last time this faithful web log checked in with Mohamed, he and I were both planning on making our millions from Apple’s slow entry into the global [...]