Apple's Stock Could Still Double, Even if it Doesn't Sell 156 Million iTVs

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Eric Jackson, who contributes to TheStreet as well as Forbes, wrote a compelling and provocative piece for the latter Monday: Apple Might Sell 156 Million iTVs In Its First Year, Doubling Stock.

Whoa! If Apple (AAPL) hadn't become such a casino I might argue that Jackson helped lift the stock Tuesday. But that was just a continuation of the whipsaw driving long-term investors nuts.

Jackson took Morgan Stanley research and fleshed it out. Katy Huberty claims Apple could sell 13 million iTVs at $1,060 a pop, adding $14 billion in revenue and $4.50 EPS to the top and bottom lines. Jackson extrapolates her number -- adding those on the fence about buying iTV and international sales -- to get to 156 million Apple TV sets sold. In one year. 365 days. Most likely between the holidays of 2013 and 2014.

I don't hold Jackson to that number. His math simply extends Huberty's work in one logical, if not incredibly optimistic, direction. But I do hold him to this much: iTV will pick up where iPod, iPhone and iPad left off.

And really, through all of the noise, that's what it comes down to at Apple: Can Tim Cook produce a product that even comes close to reaching his predecessor's heights? That's the long-term elephant in the room people ripped me for talking about months ago, but have latched onto since AAPL started imploding.

Steve Jobs is gone; will Apple become ordinary?

I'm still not confident, but, even with the stock struggling, I'm not as bearish as I once was. While quite a few cats discounted Tim Cook's recent interviews as uneventful, I disagree. Cook sounded more like the type of confident, read-between-my-lines-if-you-can CEO Apple had, deserves and requires. Plus, Cook tipped us off just a tiny bit more to what the next iteration of Apple TV will be.