When the late Steve Jobs revealed the iPhone to the world in 2007, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) wasn’t paying a dividend.
It wasn’t surprising.
The iPhone maker was growing fast but lacked the diversity in revenue sources to reliably pay out a part of its earnings.
Five years would pass before the company finally paid out a dividend.
By fiscal 2012, Apple had grown to become a behemoth, drawing in US$157 billion in revenue.
More importantly, the company had become less dependent on any product, service or country.
And Apple was ready to pay a dividend.
