You’ve probably heard the rumor by now.
The upcoming iPhone 5 is supposed to be thinner, lighter and faster.
But it may have another interesting feature — it could help boost the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.
JPMorgan says the new iPhone, expected to be unveiled Wednesday, could give the economy a bump somewhere between a quarter to a half of a percentage point.
Government data shows the economy grew 1.7 percent in the second quarter. A boost from the iPhone could push growth to 2 percent in the fourth quarter.
In dollars and cents, that’s an additional $3.2 billion dollars being injected into the U.S. economy, at a time when we really need it.
To get that number JPMorgan predicts each iPhone would add $400 dollars to the GDP, and that’s factoring in import costs, as well as assuming Apple sells 8 million iPhones in the final three months of the year.
That’s actually a fairly low estimate considering the company sold 26 million iPhones last quarter.
And that’s a small number by Apple’s standards. So, no surprise that the tech industry is estimating a bigger sales number.
It projects Apple will sell 45 million iPhones by the end of the year.
After all, there’s demand, because many consumers held off on buying the 4s model, and we’re coming into the holiday shopping season.
So if sales are even stronger than JPMorgan’s predictions, we could see an even bigger boost to economic growth.
