2013 Apple Earnings Forecast Raised From Huge to Ginormous

Add another chapter to the never-ending Apple growth story.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has modeled Apple’s performance for the 2013 calendar year and come up with some very large numbers indeed: Earnings per share of $40.50 on $164 billion in revenue.

That’s about 10 percent above Street consensus on EPS and 8 percent over consensus on revenue. But Munster has his reasons — specifically soaring demand for the iPhone and iPad. He figures that unit growth rates for both devices will be so strong over the next two years that Apple will end up selling 143 million iPhones and 68 million iPads in 2013. What’s more, it will sell them at sales prices far above the industry average for competing devices.

“We believe the markets for smartphones and tablets are big enough to support this growth, even if Apple’s ASP is significantly higher than its competition,” said Munster. “Consumers have demonstrated their willingness to pay up for the best technology, and we expect this trend to continue.”

And if it does, the iPhone and iPad will account for 49 percent and 21 percent of Apple’s revenue for calendar 2013 by Munster’s calculations.