By Senad Karaahmetovic
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) presented the new iPhone 14 and Apple Watch lineups yesterday, as well as the 2nd generation of AirPods Pro. The company will be taking preorders over the next few weeks while some products are available for shipping as soon as next week.
Heading into the event, Wall Street analysts were mostly focused on the prices for iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Max. In line with what some analysts were expecting, including a Goldman Sachs analyst, Apple kept its USD pricing for all models of iPhone unchanged.
Here’s what Wall Street had to say about the event.
The Goldman Sachs analyst said: “Apple's big Fall event revealed mostly incremental improvements in our opinion... Apple's stock was up slightly on the day but we see little reason for incremental positivity on a product launch that was largely as expected.”
An Evercore ISI analyst said: “The event was largely in-line with our expectations, although some may be slightly surprised by the lack of pricing action.”
A Credit Suisse analyst added: “While much of the launch was in-line with our expectations, we believe feature/functionality places the iPhone ahead of a traditional “S” year which, combined with a week earlier of availability, may drive upside to our consensus matching F4Q22 revenue estimate of $88.9B (up 7% y/y).”
A Bernstein analyst noted: “Consistent with history, Apple's stock reaction was muted yesterday (-100bps relative) and we expect the stock could largely tread water for the several months, until investors gain better visibility into the strength of the iPhone 14 cycle.”
A Needham & Company analyst said: “iPhone 14 updates were mostly incremental, widely anticipated, and unexciting (to us)… The price point for iPhone 14 was the same as iPhone 13, which we think is fair. We heard no compelling reasons to swap your 13 iPhone for the new 14 iPhone.”
An Oppenheimer analyst noted: “Apple kept an unrivaled pace of user interface innovation, computing and camera performance improvement, and excellent cost control for its iPhone 14 family of smartphones, particularly for the higher-priced Pro/Pro Max lines. It confirms our conviction that that iPhone will continue to see favorable ASP mix and gain share over Android in a tougher macro backdrop.”
A Wedbush analyst added: “Launching 3 new core hardware products within the Apple ecosystem despite the biggest supply chain crisis seen in modern history is a major feat for Cook & Co. especially with the zero Covid shutdowns in China seen in April/May.”
Apple shares are up 0.1% in premarket Thursday.