Analyst Estimates Apple Will Reach 600 M Users By 2014

Despite rumors that Apple lost its huge appeal with consumers, a Morgan Stanley analyst still sees positive figures. Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Hubert estimates Apple will reach 600 million users by 2014, a forecast that sees Apple’s client base growing by up to 100 million users.

Over the past year, Apple has recorded a growth of 55 percent, reaching 500 million users by the end of the year, placing the company second after Facebook. It is estimated that on average each of the 500 million Apple users spend about $300 for year, whereas the free cash flow of 95 percent is higher than companies’ with similar appeal to the public, such as Amazon and Facebook.

“Apple’s advantage over other hardware platforms is its ecosystem, which creates ‘stickiness’ and opens new revenue streams” reads an investors’ note by Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Hubert. “New services, like mobile payments, video, streaming music, or ad exchange, can help monetize Apple’s user base” explains the analyst and one of the company’s opportunities to grow the number of users is mobile payments, “where Apple can leverage its larger user base, secure platform, and acquired AuthenTec technology”.

Katy Hubert’s extensive report backs up her estimate highlighting three reasons that could boost Apple’s number of users to 600 million. Mobile payments is one of them, particularly since the rumor mill has it the next iPhone will feature fingerprint recognition and the NFC technology. Then there’s also the iRadio rumor, Apple’s very own internet radio service being expected to release next week, at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference event taking place June 10 – 14 at San Francisco’s Moscone West conference center.

Finally, there’s the ad exchange rumor that says Apple is going to release a new ad exchange service on the existing iAd platform. “Developers could potentially charge higher rates than ad impressions on other devices, as Apple could offer better targeting given its insight into the user from information gathered from the hardware, the software, iTunes and app stores, user profiles and cloud storage” reads a report via Macrumors.