Covestor Giving Away iPads, Sort Of; ETFC, AAPL
| 13 April 2010

Covestor Investment Management
announced today that they're giving away a fresh new iPad to anyone who opens an account with the firm. In a statement the firm called it, "a direct correlation between the way the Apple iPad is expected to lead the evolution of Internet use and the way its own service is leading the evolution of investment management for the everyday investor."
We
recently wrote about our possible affection for the iPad and E*TRADE's (ETFC) Mobile Pro product. We posited that this may finally be the mobile experience investors have been waiting for. Apple (AAPL)
featured the E*TRADE application on its iPad apps page.
Covestor allows investors to automatically mirror the trades of investors in their own accounts. We
wrote about the firm in a six-part series in March.
The iPads are being given away willy nilly-with no string attached... wait a minute. Not true. Actually, you have to open an account and fund the account with at least $30,000 within six months or they make you pay them back ($499).
We question whether anyone willing to plunk down $30k to open an account would flinch at the thought of plunking down 500 bucks on an iPad. However, it's true, cheapskates know no bounds. Plus, regardless whether anyone takes them up on the offer the announcement should certainly stir up... ahem... a little media interest.
What would make the announcement even more exciting for us, however, is a simultaneous debut of the super-hot Covestor iPad app. You know the one, that let's you cover-flip through managers and rock to the Plain White T's all while watching Timothy Sykes short-selling penny stocks in your portfolio. (The iPad can multi-task, can't it?)
Alas, were still waiting for that app to debut. As always, we'll keep you posted.