Needham & Company have given AAPL a shot in the arm. While Apple’s stock is just kissing the $400 mark in recent trading, Needham sees the Cupertino based technology company at $540 next year. Apple has had a steady past decade with its iPods complimenting the Mac lineup and the iPhone since 2007. Until last year, there was just the new iPhone and iPod touches for Cupertino to show a boost in earnings, from a finance stand point this growth would have leveled by now. But a twist in the tale happened with the iPad debuting last year and going on to sell more than 25 million units so far.
The iPad 2 is considered the best tablet around and Apple has claimed 2011 to be the ‘year of the iPad 2’. Riding on iPads success and its expansion in China, Apple is not only growing at a crazy pace, it is in fact beating the industry growth rate by a huge margin. With its huge cash reserves, Apple is said to control component supplies and thus saving the best for its product lines. Be it the MacBook Air or the iPad 2, Apple has a manufacturing advantage to help keep its prices competitive and competitors out of market.
Needham’s estimates point that Apple would sell over 36 million iPads this year and as many as 55 million in 2012. Despite this, the iPhone is said to be as much as 50% of Apple’s business. With Android, WebOS and Windows Phone giving tough competition, Apple needs to throw out some killer iPhone 5 goodness to keep up the growth.