WALL STREET CONSENSUS pegs Apple revenue at $140 bil lion for its next fiscal year. A closer look at its $8 billion capi tal-expenditure budget (more than Google, Amazon and Microsoft combined) suggests sales could be quite a bit higher. Here's why: Since 2004 Apple's cap ex has grown from 2% to 4% of annual revenue as the company has invested in stores, data centers that deliver music and movies, and custom tooling and production gear for all those slick new phones and tablets. An unchanged cap-ex rate of 4% next year would put sales at $200 billion. Thaf s not likely. Even with cap ex at 5% of sales Apple would surpass $160 bil lion, up 48% from $108 billion in fiscal 2011. Here's an educated guess on how the spending breaks down. (Apple reveals only retail store spend ing, a shrinking slice of the over all capital budget)
展开▼
