Booming world market of iPads and iPhones will boost Apple’s sales in 2011 and 2012 resulting in USD 200 billion in annual revenues which will make Apple the biggest technology company in terms of sales, George Colony, CEO of Forrester Research, said in an interview with Bloomberg. The company managed to sell 15 million iPads since the mobile device was introduced a year ago with the number of iPods sold worldwide reaching 90 million in four years.
“They’ll be bigger than IBM next year and they’ll be bigger than HP the year after that. They’re going to be a USD2 00 revenue company,” Colony said.
According to him, the company will benefit greatly from the growing demand for applications running on Apple’s mobile devices.
The company is able to retain a sustainable sales growth rate of approximately 50 percent a year in the next year and a half with sales climbing over 50 percent in the last fiscal year due to growing sales of Apple’s mobile devices. The main driver behind the future growth of the company, however, will be the fast-growing market for mobile and cloud-based applications.
Apple is expected to oust Hewlett-Packard and IBM as market leaders in terms of sales with USD 126 billion in USD 99.9 billion in 2010, respectively. The company is already a world leader in terms of market capitalization.
Apple’s stock gained over 5 percent in the past 12 months and analysts suggest that the company’s shares may break the USD 500 per share resistance point by end-2011.
Colony also pointed out at the crucial role of Steve Jobs in Apple’s performance during the years. The company is in strong position to attack the top place in terms of worldwide sales volumes but Jobs iconic and charismatic vision and approach may be the key to success. Apple’s app store is a fast-growing business but without Steve Jobs at the helm the company may lose momentum, experts warn.
“Every two years they have to fill that store with new stuff. Without Steve Jobs as the CEO, I think that will be much harder to do,” Colony commented.
Apple can take advantage of the fast-evolving market of mobile devices like iPad and iPhone which require a growing number of applications to satisfy customers’ needs. On the other hand, rivals like RIM, the manufacturer of Blackberry, are also on the rise with sales growing for several consecutive years. Other competitors are introducing new products, services and applications to the market and Apple faces fierce competition from low-cost producers in Asia, especially Chinese manufacturers. Thus, Steve Jobs’s presence in the company may prove crucial for the company’s future development while those who invested in Apple’s stock should not be worried in short-run.
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