Thursday, October 18, 2012

Apple iPhone 5: The Next Fifty Shades Of Grey In Terms Of Profit?


Book retailers, such as Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com noticed a major boost in earnings last quarter, largely due to the erotic novel, Fifty Shades of Grey. Barnes and Noble alone reported a 4.6 % increase in revenue, and reported $1.45 billion. The sales of e-readers, such as the NOOK and Kindle have also been boosted by the novel's release.
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 According to William Lynch, the CEO of Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS), "During the first quarter, we continued to see improvement in both our rapidly growing NOOK business, which saw digital content sales increase 46% during the quarter, and at our bookstores, which continue to benefit from the strong sales of the Fifty Shades series.”

 What does this have to do with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)?

Well, on September 12th, Apple released its new iPhone 5. Since that release, the new 6th generation iPhone has sold record numbers, including 2 million pre-ordered units. Apple's sales and revenue have increased dramatically in the wake of the launch, with the stock touching an all time high of $705 per share. Although the stock has settled and dropped back down to its current price, just below $635 per share, the revenue and profits have continued to grow. Apple's retail sales increased by 1.1% in September alone, due to iPhone 5. This growth was driven by a 4.5% growth in sales of retailers in the electronics sector.

More than 5 million iPhone 5 units were sold within its first 72 hours of availability. These numbers helped push the entire electronics sector to new highs, according to leading economists. Fifty Shades of Grey Was attributed with being able to do that for the printed literature market, upon its release.

 However, iPhone 5 has accomplished more than the novel, in that, it has the potential to boost the entire gross domestic product of the whole U.S. economy by as much as 0.5 %, according to JPMorgan analysts. On top of that, air freight companies have also received a boost, due to shipments of the iPhone being sent out of the country.

 Forbes has gone as far as saying that the iPhone 5 may have a more solid impact on the U.S. economy, than the Federal Reserve's proposed quantitative easing measures.

No doubt, Apple has performed very well in the past few months. Recently it was named as the leading company in the world, in terms of value. It will be interesting to see how the iPad mini will affect the revenue streams of the tech giant.