4 Key WWDC Takeaways From An Apple Bull

While there were no groundbreaking announcements, Apple Inc. AAPL's WWDC keynote address Monday was filled with more product launches than investors anticipated. After the address, Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi rated Apple at Outperform and set a $160 price target.

4 Key Highlights

Most of the new product launches seem to be Apple following the leads of other companies, and none of the moves will push them into completely new markets.

To see all of the announcements, check out the WWDC keynote recap from Benzinga.

1. HomePod

The launch of the Apple HomePod, which is a cross between the Sonos Play 1 and the Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN's Echo, according to Sacconaghi, was the biggest announcement at the WWDC. But, the analyst said it only accounting for $0.5 billion–$2 billion in sales (less than 1 percent of Apple's revenue). Comparably, Amazon’s Echo sales are estimated to be about $800 million and Sonos is generating about $1 billion in revenue every year.

“The challenge for HomePod will be that it is more expensive ($349), particularly versus the combination of a Sonos Play 1 ($199 – similar in size to a HomePod) and Amazon Echo Dot ($49), both of which have passionate consumer followings,” Sacconaghi said. “Moreover, the HomePod will be marketed more as a speaker than an assistant, and is much later to market than Amazon and Google.”

2. AppStore Redesign

Apple announced a redesigned AppStore, as CEO Tim Cook looks to double Services revenue by 2020. The new store will include more content and different gaming tabs in order to make the store more of a destination for its users.

3. Augmented, Virtual Reality: ARKit

Apple announced its initial steps regarding augmented and virtual reality strategies. Specifically, Apple launched the ARKit (an augmented reality development kit) and completed its first virtual reality demo.

4. Financials And Important Figures

Apple only highlighted a few financial and numerical metrics, but the Bernstein report did note that Apple Music subs are higher than Sacconaghi had estimated.

Overall, while the WWDC only provides the world with a glimpse of Apple’s future, Sacconaghi said Apple will continue to move in the right direction.

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