As some of you may already know, there have been forecasts that predict the iPhone 5 will boost the United States economy in the last quarter of 2012. The question is, how accurate are the numbers that were thrown out? Let’s look into how this release will truly affect the economy.
It is assumed that roughly $3 billion could be pumped into the US economy before the year’s end from sales of the iPhone 5 alone. According to Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics:
All told, the iPhone 5 could add a quarter-percentage point to the U.S. economy’s growth in the next three months.
As I previously reported in an article located here, JP Morgan made a projection that could be deemed too conservative according to Munster. JP Morgan forecasted that Apple would sell roughly 8 million devices in the fourth quarter alone. Based on our current numbers, there is a possibility that this projection may have already been surpassed, based on the first weekend of sales.
Many also claim that the money being spent on the new iPhone will interfere with other areas where that money should have been spent to support our economy. Zandi says:
Some of the increased spending on iPhones will be offset by less spending on other things.
According to Michael Feroli, his initial analysis of the iPhone 5 sales and the US economy was based on previous iPhone introductions. As an example, when the iPhone 4S was released last October, online sales and software sales saw the largest increase on record. Feroli goes on to say that the announcement of the iPhone 4S increased the economy by .1-.2% in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Regardless of the increase to the economy, you can certainly see a difference in the stock market. Apple shares have increased by 74% this year alone. To put this into perspective, Microsoft’s market value increased by $261 billion while Apple’s market value grew a whopping $278 billion. This accounts for 44% of the gains produced by the 71 technology companies listed in the index.
I would say that Apple is doing very well for themselves. Own stock? Thinking of purchasing stock? Let us know in the comments below.