While its new partnership with Verizon will undoubtedly help Apple sell a few million more iPhones, that could be a drop in the bucket compared to a potential market of nearly 2.5 billion people.
In a note this week to investors, Katy Huberty, a Morgan Stanley analyst, wrote that you can expect to see Apple sign deals with Reliance Communications of India and China Telecom. She didn’t predict when that might happen, but Apple Insider says rumors are flying that both are currently in talks with the computer giant.
Huberty believes Apple will sell 72 million iPhones this year; that’s about 10 million more than the average Wall Street prediction. Verizon subscribers alone will account for 7-8 million of those buyers, with an additional boost coming from the potential release of the fifth-generation device this summer.
The analyst expects Apple might make yet another splash in the U.S. market now that exclusivity with AT&T is coming to a close, but deals with global CDMA carriers will probably come first.
"Apple’s multi-year, non-exclusive agreement with VZ opens up the possibility of Apple adding other carriers in the US including T-Mobile and Sprint," she wrote.
China and India are two of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world.