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What's going on?
Apple took a big leap into the world of virtual and augmented reality at its annual developer conference on Monday (tweet this) a sign of the growing importance of this new technology.
What does this mean?
Each year, Apple holds a developer conference where it showcases its future software plans to developers who will, hopefully, build new apps to be offered on Apples platforms. At this years event, Apple announced a big push into augmented reality (AR), which typically involves using the camera to take an image or video of the real world and have it interact somehow with software (Pokemon Go is an example of an AR game). The announcement suggests that AR capabilities will be an important part of the upcoming iPhone 8 (and other devices).
Apple also announced new devices including a Siri-powered smart speaker, called HomePod, that will take on Google Home and the Amazon Echo. Among various other things, its also enabling Apple Pay for peer-to-peer payments meaning it will soon be competing with Venmo, Square and others.
Why should I care?
The bigger picture: While Apple still builds hardware, the focus for the future is likely on its services business.
Selling hardware, like iPhones and laptops, is still very lucrative for Apple, but the revenue it gets from things like its app store (where Apple takes a cut of all sales), Apple Music, and Apple Pay is becoming increasingly important. Its AR initiatives should open up a whole new stream of potential services revenue (e.g. AR apps).
For markets: Wall Street didnt seem to care.
There was no major impact on Apples stock price, which was down less than a percent on Monday. While investors got an indication of Apples priorities, particularly AR, its too early to have a concrete idea of how that will translate into revenue.
Originally posted as part of the Finimize daily email.
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