If You Bought $1,000 in Apple Stock When the iPod Was Released, Here’s How Much You'd Have Now

Apple Computer Inc. unveils a new portable music player, the iPod MP3 music player, at an event in Cupertino, Calif., on Oct. 23, 2001. Courtesy of Apple Corp. via Getty Images

Apple Inc. will discontinue making the iPod, a music player that was first launched in 2001. Here’s a look at how the stock has performed since the music player was launched.

What Happened

Apple released the iPod in 2001 as one of its first personal electronics products. The first iPod was released on Oct. 23, 2001.

Later versions of the iPod were introduced including the iPod Mini in 2004, iPod Nano in 2006, iPod Touch in 2007, and several versions of the iPod Shuffle.

The device was one of several items that expanded the product line for Apple away from the computer market, and also one of the many products that were launched with co-founder Steve Jobs serving as Apple CEO.

The success of the iPod led Apple to later push into the phone market with the iPhone, a product that has been extremely successful for the company and remains a huge revenue driver for the tech giant.

“If we didn’t do the iPod, the iPhone wouldn’t have come out,” former Apple Senior Vice President Tony Fadell said. “The iPod brought us confidence. It brought Steve confidence that we could so something outside of the map and that we could actually continue to innovate in new areas.”

The iPod changed the music industry forever, with options to buy songs separately from a full album and several a-la-carte options. The music player also helped boost the share price of Apple with early success.

Investing $1,000 in Apple

Apple shares traded around $19.60 on Oct. 23, 2001. A $1,000 investment in Apple could have purchased 51.02 shares at the time of the iPod release.

Over the last 21 years, Apple stock has also split several times with a 2-for-1 split in 2005, a 7–1 split in 2014 and a 4–1 split in 2020.

The hypothetical investment would now be 2,857.12 shares.

Based on a price of $149.31 for Apple shares at the time of writing, the $1,000 investment would now be worth $425,596.59. This represents a return of 42,559.67 percent over the last 21+ years.

By Chris Katje

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