The press release passed with hardly a notice by me about halfway through 2008. Apple (AAPL) had surpassed Wal-Mart (WMT) as the world's leading retailer of music. Sure, it was interesting to hear such a success story, but the sheer magnitude of the news didn't really hit me until companies like Amazon (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY) announced their amazing Christmas seasons in 2008. It suddenly hit me. The internet is taking over the retail world.

It crept up on me. The internet has been around a long time. I didn't even really notice that compact disks had become obsolete. Sure, I have my mp3 player just like everyone else, but who bought their shares of AAPL five years ago because of AAPL's expected impact in the music industry?