2012: A 107 Million iPhone Year?
Another bullish prediction ahead of Apple’s Tuesday iPhone event: The company will ship 84 million iPhones this year and 27 percent more the next.
That’s the word from Janney Capital Markets analyst Bill Choi, who believes that new carrier agreements and international expansion will push iPhone sales as high as 107 million in 2012.
“There are still a handful of major carriers worldwide that have yet to carry the iPhone. Potential deals with Sprint (52.1M subscribers), T-mobile (33.6M subscribers), China Mobile (628M subscribers) and other large international carriers pose a catalyst to fuel iPhone sales,” Choi observes. “As of the third quarter of 2011, Apple distributed the iPhone in 105 countries through 228 carriers.”
Broadening the iPhone’s distribution beyond those 228 significantly expands its addressable market at a time when popularity is soaring. And with few competitive offerings from other smartphone manufacturers to hold it back, the device’s momentum is only going to accelerate, and Apple’s share growth with it.
Says Choi, “We believe Apple is well positioned to capture an enormous profit pool as mobility and content worlds converge.”
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