My iPhones and my first investment
In July 2010 I paid €629 for an iPhone 4. Suppose I had put another €629 into Apple stock that same day. Today that second €629 would be worth about €28,500.
The last column shows what €629 of Apple stock, bought on the iPhone 4 launch day (89.2 shares), was worth on each later purchase date. Nothing is sold.
iPhone | Dutch launch date | Price (EUR) | Value of first investment (EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
iPhone 4 (16 GB) | 30 Jul 2010 | 629* | 629 |
iPhone SE (16 GB) | 31 Mar 2016 | 489 | 2,135 |
iPhone 8 (64 GB) | 22 Sep 2017 | 809 | 2,831 |
iPhone 12 mini (64 GB) | 13 Nov 2020 | 809 | 9,003 |
iPhone 15 Pro (128 GB) | 22 Sep 2023 | 1,229 | 14,643 |
Today | 11 Nov 2026 | – | 28,507 |
The €629 I didn't spend twice
That money bought 89 shares, at about $9 each in today's terms. On 11 November 2026 one share closed at $355.63. That is 45 times my money in sixteen years.
The nice part is what that pot could have paid for. I bought four more iPhones after the iPhone 4: an SE, an 8, a 12 mini and a 15 Pro. Together they cost €3,336. Every time I bought one, the first investment was already worth more than the new phone. By 2023 it could have paid for the iPhone 15 Pro almost twelve times.
So what if I had sold just enough shares to pay for each new phone? Then my €629 would have bought four iPhones for me. And I would still own almost 28 shares, worth about €8,900 today.
I only know this because I look back. In 2010 nobody knew that Apple would become a five-trillion-dollar company. Plenty of companies looked just as strong then and did much worse.
Starting now: the iPhone 18 Pro
What if I start the habit today? The iPhone 18 Pro (256 GB) went on sale in the Netherlands on 18 September 2026 for €1,479. The same amount in Apple stock that day bought about 5 shares at $336.13. On 11 November 2026 those shares are worth about €1,610, roughly 9% up in eight weeks. Nobody can tell me what they will be worth in 2042. A repeat of the last sixteen years (×45) would turn €1,479 into about €66,000. But Apple is now worth over $5 trillion, and 45 times that is more than $230 trillion. So the next sixteen years will almost certainly look different from the last.
Method and sources
Stock prices are daily closes, adjusted for Apple's 7-for-1 split (2014) and 4-for-1 split (2020). Euros are converted with the ECB reference rate of each day. Dividends, fees and taxes are left out. This is a look back, not financial advice.
- Prices: Apple newsroom (iPhone SE), Telecompaper (iPhone 8), TechRadar NL (iPhone 12 mini), EveryMac (iPhone 15 Pro), iPhoned (iPhone 18 Pro), iCulture (iPhone 4 in Europe)
- Stock: Digrin price history, Yahoo Finance, StatMuse (Nov 2020), StockInvest (Sep 2023), Gotrade (Sep 2026), Gotrade (Nov 2026)
- Exchange rates: ECB reference rates, currencyapi ECB history
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