Whenever I hear someone ask what Apple will do after the iPhone, I think the question begins in the wrong place. It assumes Apple needs to invent another product as culturally dominant and financially powerful as the iPhone before the company can create its next trillion dollars of market value. I do not believe it does. Apple is no longer a company waiting for one device to save it. It is a platform spread across billions of active devices, supported by custom silicon, software, subscriptions, payments, wearables, health data and an extraordinarily loyal customer base. The iPhone remains the center of that system, but the next phase of Apple’s value may come from making every person inside the system worth a little more—not from discovering a completely new population overnight. As of September 14, 2026, Apple’s market capitalization was approximately $4.9 trillion. Adding another trillion would represent an increase of roughly 20%. That is a serious challenge, especially with the sto...
Franklin Templeton’s income looks dependable. The harder question is whether the business underneath it is finally turning a corner. I have a weakness for dividend stocks. There is something deeply satisfying about owning a company that sends me cash without requiring me to sell anything, predict the next market craze, or pretend I understand why a cryptocurrency named after a cartoon animal gained 40% before breakfast. But a dividend can be seductive in exactly the wrong way. A large yield can look like a welcome mat when it is actually caution tape. It can make a struggling company appear generous when the market is quietly pricing in stagnant earnings, weak growth, or a future cut. A dividend tells me what management intends to pay. The stock price tells me what investors think that promise is worth. That brings me to Franklin Templeton, which still trades under the ticker BEN following the company’s August 2026 corporate name change from Franklin Resources. At a recent price near $...