By
Godfrey Benjamin
March 22nd, 2024
5G adoption, as well as the services and wearables businesses, are said to help the Apple stock price to increase. Apple’s market cap is expected to grow from $1.3 trillion to $2 within a couple of years.
Apple TV+ and Apple Watches have been in the news for a bit now and while it might seem like they are the reason behind the boost in Apple’s Q1 earnings this year, there is another quiet star that isn’t even on the market yet is actually behind all the hype.
On Wednesday morning, shares in the trading market rose following an announcement from the largest U.S-based mobile phone manufacturer regarding their earnings in December’s first quarter which to the surprise of everyone was substantially more than expectations. This rise in income was a result of a revival in the sale of the iPhone which is the company’s biggest product.
Wearable Devices Contribute to Apple Stock Increase
Analysts, however, gave kudos to the Apple Watch, AirPods and Beats headphones as they also affected the growth in income, accounting for a 17% increase in its service business and a 37% increase in sales. China, which recently faced some economic challenges, recorded an increase of 3.1% of overall Apple sales.
The 40% stock gain by Apple since September 30 is, however, not entirely because of the aforementioned. Now the stock price is around $324, while at the end of September it was around $218. It is the upcoming 5G line which is expected to roll out this fall could arguably be said to be responsible for this surge.
At the time when Apple seems to have struggled with its unit growth in sales of its biggest product line, this might just be like hitting the lotto for them. With the revolutionary 5G coming to their phones this year and about 95% retention rate when users upgrade phones, the managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, Daniel Ives stated that the projection for sale of units are estimated to start at about 195 million before peaking at an estimate of 220 million in fiscal 2021.
Estimates of 5G’s Effects on Apple Sales
The prospects for 5G are undeniably huge. Ives stated that with a combination of wearables and services businesses, 5G could raise Apple’s current $1.3 trillion market cap by $700 million within a couple of years. Aside from this, the director is confident that talks about the new set of phones that Apple will be releasing are going to be on the lips of everyone when they disclose their Christmas 2020 quarter report.
With 5G, the company is hopeful that the technology will reduce or stabilize the replacement time of iPhones – a figure which grew from about 26-28 months to 37-38 months and caused a decline in smartphone unit sales.