Could the iPhone save the economy?
JP Morgan’s Chief Economist Keith Fitzgerald says that sales of the new iPhone could increase America’s economic production by as much as a half percent. According to the report — the iPhone could increase GDP 3.2 billion in the current quarter — and nearly 13 billion over 12 months.
Such results would be significant for America’s recovery. But does Apple really have the ability to spark a full economic recovery?
“I don’t know whether or not the economy is bad that something as innocuous as a cell phone is going to make that big a pop — or we’ve become so dependent on technology that that much money is going to pour into it. What happened to airplanes, cars and houses — all these other things we use to depend on?”
Either way — it’s not just Apple that could profit. Carriers like AT&T are also expected to cash in while phone companies are expected to subsidize the cost — new data plans could end up bringing in billions in profits.
According to the Wall Street Journal in the second quarter carriers’ data revenue came in at more than $17 billion.
By FOX’s Tracy Byrnes
