Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) – Apple Analysts Summarize ‘Spring Loaded’: Why Podcast Subscriptions Are ‘Significant’, AirTags a ‘Sleeper Hit’, iPad Pro Blurs the Line Between Mac and iPad

Apple inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) unveiled the highly anticipated AirTag product on Tuesday, and also announced product upgrades and new services at the Spring Unloaded event.

Here’s what four Apple stock analysts and experts had to say.

Munster says Apple’s rollouts add 3% to the topline: While the announcements individually do little to improve Apple’s sales, they are material in aggregate and could add an incremental 3% to total revenues, Gene Munster, managing partner of Loup Ventures said in a note.

The price changes suggest that demand for the Mac and iPad remains favorable and margins are likely to remain flat to higher, he said.

The refurbished iMac has a slimming design, color addition, better cameras, microphones and speakers for Zoom calls, and a Touch ID keyboard option, Munster said.

Apple is using the color argument as a feature to increase the price by $ 200, especially for yellow, orange and purple models, which is good for margins, he said.

The iPad Pro is now more of a Mac than an iPad, and with the right keyboard, it offers the flexibility of both laptop and tablet, Munster said.

He believes that AirTags can be a ‘sleeper hit’.

Over the next five years, the AirTag will become a must-have, ultimately accounting for 1% -2% of total sales, he said.

Air Tag will differentiate itself from Tile, the tracking device currently available on the market, with improved navigation and detection capabilities, along with a more than 1 billion device network that can be used to locate lost items, Munster said.

Podcast subscriptions are an important announcement as Apple now has the first global podcast marketplace, Munster said. Apple will likely take a sliding plan, with 30% retained in the first year and 15% in subsequent years, he said.

While not significant from a revenue standpoint, it is an important category to maintain leadership as podcasts will play an increasing role in consumers’ lives, Loup Ventures managing partner said.

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Apple Podcast Subscriptions Excite Needham: Of all the new hardware introductions, Apple’s new Podcasts subscriptions excite Needham the most, analyst Laura Martin said in a note.

Podcast subscriptions are a better premium product to suit Apple’s major consumers, and it has the potential to reduce churn on 100% of Apple devices, the analyst said.

The product adds a new global total addressable market, while also adding a new subscription revenue stream and bundling capabilities, she said.

Apple should be valued as an ecosystem company, with its seamless integration of hardware, software and content, Martin said.

“Proprietary content integrated into AAPL’s devices lowers acquisition costs and customer churn, and maximizes lifetime value within AAPL’s ecosystem, we believe.”

AirTags Good For Location, Tracking Tech, Roth says: Among the major announcements were the highly anticipated AirTags, the debut of 5G on the iPad and microLEDs in the Liquid Retina HDR displays, Roth Partners analyst Scott Searle said in a note.

“While not earth-shattering, we consider the AirTags to be progressive in the development of the location and tracking ecosystem,” said the analyst.

It represents a stylish upgrade to the tile and uses a low Bluetooth power consumption that can run normally for a year before the battery needs to be replaced, he said.

Ultimately, tracking will likely move from BLE to cellular solutions for larger, more mobile items and assets such as children and pets, Searle said.

LTE Cat M or NB IoT solutions are a natural extension for Apple and other consumer electronics vendors to advance the technology, the analyst said.

The debut of 5G-compatible iPads is indicative of an increasingly connected economy, Needham said.

What will change with Apple’s iOS 14.5? Apple announced iOS 14.5 at the event, which will be available to consumers starting April 26, MKM Partners analyst Rohit Kulkarni said in a note.

“Apple’s App Tracking Transparency Privacy Policy, which includes a set of policies about how consumer data can be used to target and measure ads, will be enforced in iOS 14.5,” the analyst said.

All apps will have to ask for a user’s permission to track them or access their device’s advertising ID, he said.

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