For example, imagine you purchased the state-of-the-art 250 MHz Apple PowerBook G3 250 back in 1997. The notebook would have set you back a pretty penny, $5700 to be exact.

Now let's say instead of purchasing the (soon useless) notebook, you opted to spend that $5700 on Apple shares instead. If you had the financial foresight to make that decision, you'd be the proud owner of shares to the value of some $330 563 today.

According to Conroy's research, it seems investing is the better option when it comes to Apple, showing that if you had purchased shares instead of the original iPod in 2001 ($400), you'd have a profit of around $11 914 on your hands today.

Apple’s new iPad 2 tablet is being released in the US today, which makes one wonder, just how much will your stock be worth if you invested the $499 (for the cheapest iPad 2) into Apple shares instead?

You can view the full list of products and their stock comparisons at Kyle Conroy's blog.