Gene Munster: Apple's June 4 WWDC 'Vastly More Important' Than September Announcements

Last fall, Apple Inc. AAPL popped 12 percent ahead of its annual device unveiling. The preceding Worldwide Developers Conference proved less galvanizing.

“The stock doesn’t have as much movement around this,” Loup Ventures managing partner Gene Munster told Benzinga. “The irony is that what’s going to be said at WWDC is vastly more important than any sort of hardware upgrade that comes out in September.”

That’s because, as Munster expects, the event is centered on platform updates, augmented reality and artificial intelligence themes — central factors in the Apple thesis.

“Those two areas are critical to Apple in the future,” he said.

“The AI piece is obvious that it’s critical. It’s the same thing as saying mobile’s critical or the internet’s critical; AI is going to be that same fabric that is going to be woven in. Obviously it’s in a lot of products, including Apple products today, but I think that it’s hard to overstate how important AI is longer-term.”

By similar measures, Munster said he expects AR to become a primary interface in the next decade: the future of human-computer interaction. Apple’s investment in related software even has hardware implications; the primary channel is seen to eventually shift from phones to wearables, which presents a new product opportunity.

Notably, Munster considers Apple the best way for investors to gain exposure to emerging AR and AI themes. But investors don't appear terribly interested yet. They prefer to see tangible evidence of progress rather than foundational groundwork for future advancements, Munster said.

The Street still cares about WWDC: last year, analysts remarked that the showcased offerings opened significant opportunities for Apple and reaffirmed a bullish consensus.

Related Links:

Everything You Need To Know From Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference 2017 Keynote Address

Gene Munster On Apple's 2018 Outlook

Photo courtesy of Apple.