FEATUREthe bigger pictures. Its product lines rise and fall, but
up to this point, the company’s overall trajectory this
century has been pretty dramatically upward. One key
reason for that is a regular addition of new products
and services that can fuel growth and compensate for
products that have stopped growing or, in the case of
the iPod, have faded out entirely.
Apple has come a long way from those quarters
early in the 2000swhen it couldn’teven show a profit.
By my back‑of‑the‑envelope calculations, Apple has
generated $450 billion in profit since 2000, $429
billion of that in the last ten years, and $277 billion of
it in the past five years.