Tech stocks in 2014: Apple, $1 trillion; Microsoft, (toward) zero?
There鈥檚 a lot of excitement as top analysts continue to forecast when聽Apple聽will hit $1,000 a share and becomes the first trillion-dollar company.
For Gene Munster, managing director and senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray, that day will come sometime in 2014.
鈥淚 know that when you look at the $1,000 price tag, it looks like a big number. But when you look back and do the math 鈥� it鈥檚 not that hard to get there,鈥� Munster told CNBC Tuesday, referring to how Apple聽shares have nearly doubled in the past year alone.
Munster attributes his very bullish outlook to opportunities in the mobile device space: Out of 1.6 billion total units to be made available in the market in the next couple of years, Piper Jaffray expects Apple to corner at least 400 million of the market, 鈥渁 very achievable target.鈥�
聽This, despite stirring concerns that the new generation of products will be more 鈥渆volutionary鈥� rather than revolutionary.
But Munster said that in a survey his firm conducted of iPhone users across the U.S., up to 94 percent claim they will buy another iPhone, meaning the company can count on at least 35 percent to 45 percent of sales from upgrades every year. The highly anticipated聽Apple television, which is expected to launch next year, adds more upside to its prospects.
聽What will the world with Apple is $1,000 a share look like? The tech goliath alone would represent 26 percent of total U.S. technology聽market cap, while other tech stocks like聽Research in Motion聽would be 鈥渙ut of business,鈥� and the other manufacturers such as聽Nokia听补苍诲听Microsoft聽will end up 鈥渧irtually nothing over time,鈥� according to the long-time tech analyst.
聽鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a two-horse race between Apple and Android phones built on聽Samsung,鈥� said Munster, who raised his current target on the iPad maker from $718 to $910. Apple is "going to go and rip market share right out of [its competitors] and put that into [its] market cap.鈥�
