Milestone moment! Apple unleashes AI strategy, Wall Street eagerly awaits iPhone upgrade wave
Apple unveiled a brand new artificial intelligence feature at the 2024 Global Developers Conference, attracting enthusiastic attention from Wall Street companies. Many companies believe that this may stimulate consumers to upgrade their iPhones and leave a deep impression on Apple's artificial intelligence products. Analysts point out that Apple's artificial intelligence features integrate functions such as summarization, enhanced search, text generation, and photo editing, which may drive the widespread application of artificial intelligence. Apple has also introduced meaningful proxy functions, allowing Siri to perform tasks on behalf of users and provide screen-aware capabilities. Wall Street companies believe that these new features will change iPhone gaming, with expectations of a potential increase in Apple's stock price
According to Zhitong Finance and Economics APP, Apple (AAPL.US) unveiled a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature at the 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC24) on Monday, attracting market attention. Several Wall Street companies were impressed by yesterday's keynote address, with some calling it a "milestone moment" for artificial intelligence.
DA Davidson upgraded Apple's rating from "Neutral" to "Buy" with a target price of $230.
DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria stated that the integration of features such as summarization, enhanced search, multimodal capabilities, text generation, and improved photo editing could drive the widespread application of artificial intelligence, similar to the transition from Napster to iTunes at the turn of the century.
Luria also noted that Apple is now the first company to introduce "meaningful agent capabilities," allowing Siri to perform tasks on behalf of users. The updated voice assistant can now perform actions across applications, answer questions about how to use devices, and provide "screen-aware" functionality, so users can simply say to add an address to a contact, and Siri will execute this function.
Luria mentioned that Apple also has the trust of consumers to responsibly carry out such tasks (prioritizing privacy), adding that other ways of interacting with artificial intelligence (chat applications, personal computers, and Android) may not be able to fully replicate this.
Changing the iPhone game?
Wall Street firms, including Wedbush Securities, were impressed by Apple's artificial intelligence products, with many believing that this could stimulate consumers to upgrade their iPhones.
Wedbush Securities rates Apple as "Outperform" with a target price of $275.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives stated, "Overall, Apple has introduced several new software enhancement features, marking another 'show of strength' for the company. It will enter a strong product cycle in the next 6-9 months, with the iPhone 16 set to be released later this fall and enter its vast user base."
Bank of America rates Apple as "Buy" with a target price of $230; Bernstein rates Apple as "Outperform" with a target price of $195.
Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan and Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi also believe that artificial intelligence products could trigger an iPhone upgrade cycle.
Mohan said, "These features can be used on relatively new devices (iPhone 15 pro/pro max and iPad/mac with M1 chip or higher versions), and we believe this could trigger an upgrade cycle for AI smartphones as consumers seek to enhance their productivity through new features "
Sacconaghi said: "We believe that Apple's statement at the Worldwide Developers Conference reaffirmed our view that due to its artificial intelligence capabilities, Apple may see a stronger upgrade cycle for the iPhone 16."
Overall, Wall Street analysts are generally bullish on Apple, giving it a "buy" rating.
As of the time of publication, Apple's pre-market trading is up 0.09% at $193.29, after briefly falling nearly 1%."
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