Analyst: Apple's sales in China could triple in two years

Here's more good news for Apple from the Chinese front: Katy Huberty and Mathew Schneider from Morgan Stanley have released a report saying that Apple could make as much as $9 billion from China in the fiscal year of 2012, as opposed to $2.9 billion in the last fiscal year. That kind of growth would be better than the rest of the world, which means that if there are any problems with Apple's revenue in the US and Europe over the next few years, China will likely make up for them.

The report says all of that growth will come from two major factors. First, Apple is expected to expand its sales network in China. Apple has already founded four major retail stores and begun device sales through China Unicom and its online store, but there will have to be more ways for Chinese customers to find and buy Apple products in the future. Secondly, as we've heard before, China is about to go through a major surge in the middle class, bringing more people than ever into the range of buying and using Apple's products. If Apple can take advantage of that upcoming rise in income over much of the country, it'll be well on the way to the $9 billion number.

This isn't a huge surprise -- we've known for a while that China will be a big source of growth for a lot of consumer electronics companies in the next few years. But it's interesting to see some numbers out there about just how big Apple's business in China might get.