dslarsen - Thank you for taking the time to respond so comprehensively. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to do the same. You and I obviously have different values (charity, for example). Also, it's clear that I know more facts on the matter than you appear to know. That's not intended to be an insult; merely a result of my career working with Apple and Microsoft.
I find it interesting that you believe MS defeated (my paraphrase) Apple as a result of a poorly written contract. For starters, if Jobs is so great, why would he have signed it? More importantly, there was no poorly written contract. Jobs simply had an inferior business model. If he would have licensed his IP to multiple OEMs, he could have created critical mass, exactly as MS did. Jobs couldn't figure that out and MS did. That's the reason MS won the war. Do I see Apple going out of business? Not likely, although they were on the verge before MS bailed them out. The primary reason Apple is still in business is because they keep throwing pasta at the ceiling until something sticks. If they were still just "Apple Computer", they may be out of business by now, although MS would have done everything possible to prevent it again.
I know a number of Apple employees, many of whom used to work with me. These aren't Apple Store employees or low level people. They're people who are quite high in the company. Jobs doesn't pay people to think. He pays them to do what he tells them to do. That's exactly how he treats his customers.
I'm glad you're making money and you like the company. It's a great holding to have in a portfolio at the moment.
