iPhone 12 ProSource: Daniel Bader / Android Central

What you need to know

  • Apple could hit a $3 trillion market cap as soon as 2022, says Wedbush.
  • The company cites the overperformance of the iPhone 12 lineup as an indicator for the possibility.

As reported by AppleInsider, Apple may reach a $3 trillion market capitalization sooner than anyone thought. Due to the overperformance of the iPhone 12, the firm believes that Apple could reach the historic milestone as soon as mid-2022.

In a note to investors seen by AppleInsider, lead analyst Daniel Ives writes that recent supply chain checks in Asia continue to be "incrementally bullish" around iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro demand. The current trajectory is higher than Ives' previous bull case scenario for the December quarter.

According to Ives, the new projections for iPhone sales by Wedbush are 35% higher than what was originally forecast.

Based on those checks, Ives believes the supply chain saw iPhone unit builds in the low to mid 90 million range. In December, Ives forecast a number around 80 million with a possibility of builds in the mid-80 million range. The current iPhone unit build data represents a 35% increase over Wedbush's and Wall Street's initial forecasts, Ives added. In the March quarter, Ives predicts total iPhones shipped ticked up 5% over the past few weeks and are now in the 60 million to 70 million range. For the June quarter, initial builds are in the low 40 million range with a potential upward bias.

Iphone 12 LineupSource: Apple

The analyst predicts that Apple could ship over 250 million iPhones in 2021, comparing the recent surge in demand to only those seen with the iPhone 6 years ago.

"We have not seen a launch trajectory uptrend such as this in a number of years for Apple and the only iPhone trajectory similar would be the iPhone 6 in 2014 based on our analysis."