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Forbes today highlighted several reasons why Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) will hit $1,650 per share by 2015.
1: The underrated Mac unit. According to Forbes, Apple still has only 9 percent of the undying PC market share. Mac revs grew 26 percent last quarter, with sales actually accelerating. At shipments of 17 million units, Mac sales could top 55 million in 2015 if its staggering pace continues.
2. Apple has sold 55 million iPads since inception two years ago, with Forbes expecting sales of 58 million units in 2012. Many speculate that 500 million tablets will be sold in 2015 and, with Apple's market share thinning to just 60 percent, that amounts to 300 million iPad units.
3. Untapped market share for the iPhone. Asymco analyst Horace Dediu sees Apple's iPhone having only a 6 percent market share when including smartphones and feature phones. About 72 million iPhones were sold in 2011. Forbes estimates that 1.5 billion smartphones will sell globally in 2015 and Apple should be able to retain a 32 percent market share in that segment, so 480 million units.
4. Revenue for Apple's iTunes was $2 billion in the latest quarter. This compares with $1.1 billion for Facebook and $10 billion at Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). With further adoption of iPhones and iPads, Forbes sees iTunes with sales of $32 billion in 2015.
5. For Apple's iTV, Forbes throws out a few tidbits: 210 million TVs sold globally in 2011, moving to 400 million by 2015 based on an annual growth rate of 17 percent. Should Apple be able to capture a notable portion of that market, sales for Apple's iTV might reach $100 billion per year with sales of 100 million units at about $1,000 per unit.
6. Introduced not that long ago, Apple's iAd has been put on the back-burner for the most part. With many estimates coming in at the mobile ad market producing $25 billion in revs, Forbes thinks that number will double with the accelerated adoption of mobile devices. Including iTV, Forbes thinks Apple might be able to grab $20 billion of the estimated $50 billion market.
7. Mobile payments. Apple may be able to squeeze about $3 billion more in revs after trimming credit card providers' fees with the integration of mobile payments. Forbes notes how PayPal expects the mobile payment market to move from $4 billion to $40 billion by 2015, with Apple possibly being able to grab $20 billion of that segment.
8. Miscellaneous: Further corporate and educational adoption of Apple products as RIM (Nasdaq: RIMM) BlackBerries and PCs fade into the background. Additionally, Forbes believes the dividend and buyback programs will support the stock over the next three years.
Overall, Forbes estimates Apple getting sales of $610 billion in 2015 based on the above criteria. Benefiting the prediction is price-to-sales, which the Street currently has at 4x, trending to 2.5x by 2015.
This will lead to Apple becoming a $1.53 trillion company by 2015, or $1,650 per share.
Shares of Apple are uncharacteristically lower pre-market Wednesday.
