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Apple's iPhone 5 sales could boost U.S. GDP

Apple's new iPhone, expected to be released on Wednesday, could add between a quarter and a half a percentage point to fourth-quarter GDP.

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This final note on the way out, from the Marketplace Desk of 'Oh, come on: Can we stop with all this iPhone 5 stuff already?'

There's a research note out from JP Morgan Chase today about said phone. It figures the thing -- which as we all know will be released Wednesday -- could add between a quarter and a half a percentage point to fourth-quarter GDP. That's not nothin', given that GDP's probably gonna be around 2 percent or so.

The math goes like this: 8 millon phones, it's guessing, at $600-a-whack retail. Factor out cost of goods sold, make some adjustment for international trade, and there you go.

Salt. Grain of. Take one.

About the author

Kai Ryssdal is the host and senior editor of Marketplace, public radio’s program on business and the economy. Follow Kai on Twitter @kairyssdal.
DR's picture
DR - Sep 10, 2012

Really? So, if there were no iPhone 5, the economists at Chase assume none of 8 million people would spend any of that $600 anyway? Chase needs some new economists.

Horselover Fat's picture
Horselover Fat - Sep 11, 2012

Someone needs to review Frederic Bastiat's 1850 essay, "That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen". A new iPhone may displace expenditures from one product to a different product, or a different time, but will it really create additional wealth?