As millions begin receiving their new Apple iPhone 6 and 6+ smartphones this morning, The Ticker sits down with two local business owners whose livelihoods depend on the world’s most valuable company.

Greg Nickerson, co-owner (with Jeff Broderick) of CityMac (licensed Apple reseller on South Airport in Traverse City) and Joel Mueller, founder and owner of MacUpdate (the second largest Apple app distributor on earth) reminisce about the early, “geeky” days of Apple, share their thoughts on the new iPhone and Apple Watch, and say what it’s like to be tied at the hip to a global powerhouse.

Ticker: When did you first get the Apple bug?
Mueller: As a kid in Suttons Bay. My parents bought a Mac LC, the first color Mac, for Christmas. It was in their bedroom with the door closed, and they were trying to figure out how to set it up. My sister and I would hear the chime, and we’d say, “you got a computer for Christmas didn’t you!?’ Then Christmas morning the bedroom door was open, so we got to play some games. Games were kind of my gateway drug. In high school I spent pretty much all my time in school, sports and on the Mac. Taking away the computer ended up being my punishment. It was kind of funny, because it got to the point where I was running MacUpdate with advertisers and everything and my parents are grounding me from the business.
Nickerson: I had done jobs as a machinist and in oil field production. My in-laws wanted to start a computer store, so they offered me a technician job. Then in 1985 I did an internship in Traverse City at MicroAge. Within a year the store was sold to Dick Neu and renamed Computer Haus, and then within another year we went exclusively Mac. I was probably the one who suggested it, but everyone else was thinking it. Compared to the PC, it was always way easier to get parts, to use the Macs, to fix them. We just knew they were better.

Ticker: Then things changed.
Nickerson: It was a little concerning for a while when Apple was on the brink, but then everything changed with the new iMacs, then the iPod, and then the iPad. Their revenues went from a billion to $8 billion to $10 billion…now more than $200 billion, and 60 percent of that is from phones. 
Mueller: For us in the geek world, we knew the processers were faster, even though the general consumer had no idea or didn’t care. But then yeah, right around the timeframe when the color iMacs and the first iPod we saw them moving toward the general consumer and going against companies like Sony.

Ticker: What’s it like to be dependent on another company for your livelihoods?
Nickerson: Scary isn’t the right word…maybe concerned. Apple could pull the plug in a heartbeat, I suppose. They’ve made products that have allowed us to make a good living, but we had to work for it, too. If you look at it, they basically went from our very best partner back then to our biggest competitor [via direct online sales]. Fortunately we’re positioning ourselves with more diverse products like home automation, security, and sound systems. 
Mueller: They have control of the operating system, so they could close it off. But all the best apps are not in their Apple App Store, like PhotoShop, all the Microsoft stuff, Skype…So it’s not likely but they could do it. We think about it a lot as a business risk factor being attached to a company. But if you look at Windows, for instance, Mac is killing them. Windows is in trouble.

What do you make of the new products?
Nickerson: What I’ve learned over the years is I really don’t know what the consumer wants. When the iPad came out, I scratched my head, but then it was a huge success, so I just give up. They know what they’re doing. The watch will catch on very fast. It’s pretty cool. We’re not sure if we’re going to be able to sell it yet, but we’re going to try like heck.
Mueller: I think it’s interesting. If you listen to [Apple founder Steve] Jobs back in time, he was like ‘nobody wants a big phone,’ and the iPhone fits perfectly in your hand. But then Samsung started filling that market demand. It’s a little bit strange because Samsung has better cameras, more weather resistant technology, scratch-proof glass…Apple doesn’t. It’s like the geeks are following Samsung now and Apple is where the general consumers are drawn. And the watch is really interesting. Everybody knew that mobile is where everything is going, and how big wearable technology is going to be. So the watch in some sense is Apple saying ‘we see that.’