The expanding hordes of Apple (AAPL) faithful wait for the Worldwide Development Conference (WWDC) every year like Muslims look forward to the annual Haj to Mecca.
But WWDC 2015 year wasn’t exactly one for the scrapbook.
AAPL stock gapped down Tuesday, further underlining the underwhelming news released at WWDC 2015 on Monday.
A new OS X version (El Capitan) will be released later this year. Apple Music will be offered to all Apple users. And, well that’s about it. Developers will find it easier to make apps directly for the Apple Watch.
I’ll wait until you catch your breath.
One interesting tidbit: iOS 9, the operating system for iPhone, will be able to track your reproductive health. From CNN:
“As part of its upcoming iOS 9 release, Apple will launch a new set of HealthKit features that will let you log information about menstrual cycles and specific physical changes, such as basal body temperature, cervical mucus quality and spotting.”
Not the kind of thing that is going to make significant headlines in Silicon Valley, or Wall Street to be sure.
Also, the launch of the Apple Music service seemed to confuse more than enthuse. Apparently, iTunes will be merged into Apple Music at the end of June when iOS 9 is released. But there were few details, and even reporters that got special access to more information were still a bit perplexed on what all the fuss was about.
A number of analysts at WWDC 2015 also criticized the rollout as sloppy and unfocused.
One other truly interesting piece of development news that didn’t get much press at WWDC 2015 is the announcement that both its mobile and desktop operating system upgrades will use more search powered by AAPL’s Siri personal assistant.
This is interesting because what it shows is that AAPL is making a concerted effort to move away from Google (GOOG, GOOGL) search.
Siri will be able to pull up information without opening a browser or going through Google. This could indicate a strategic shift in how AAPL looks to build search tools for its native products from here on out. Of course, the devil is in the details. We’ll have to see how all this works in the real world before making any grand pronouncements about how much of a threat it is to GOOGL’s search empire.
But all that said. It’s of little relevance.
The only thing that matters for AAPL is how many phones it sells. And it continues to sell a lot of phones.
There will be a couple of quarters where iWatch sales will be the center of the news, but at the end of the day, iPhone sales are what keep AAPL such a major consumer tech force.
And from that perspective, AAPL has nothing to worry about. A boring WWDC has come and gone, but the iPhone powers on.
Louis Navellier is a renowned growth investor. He is the editor of five investing newsletters: Blue Chip Growth, Emerging Growth, Ultimate Growth, Family Trust and Platinum Growth. His most popular service, Blue Chip Growth, has a track record of beating the market 3:1 over the last 14 years. He uses a combination of quantitative and fundamental analysis to identify market-beating stocks. Mr. Navellier has made his proven formula accessible to investors via his free, online stock rating tool, PortfolioGrader.com. Louis Navellier may hold some of the aforementioned securities in one or more of his newsletters.
