The financial services corporation Morgan Stanley raised Apple’s stock target from $155 to $162 today, due to a belief that Apple users are more frequently upgrading their iPhones.
According to MarketWatch, analyst Katy Huberty is now predicting that iPhone unit sales will rise to 7% in the 2016 fiscal year, a sharp increase from the 3% previously anticipated. Huberty has even speculated that these unit sales could grow by 12% in a “realistic bull case”.
These revised predictions respond to Morgan Stanley’s own survey findings of strong iPhone demand in the US and China. Those two markets appear to have a higher number of iPhone users expected to upgrade their handsets during the next 12 months than Morgan Stanley had originally thought, leading Huberty to claim that the “Apple life cycle is shortening”.
Though long considered to be incremental updates, the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus could surpass early sales expectations as more app developers make better use of new functions like 3D Touch, Live Photos and 4K video.