Consumer electronics giant Apple (AAPL) was once built on its hardware. The revolutionary smartphones, the slightly less revolutionary tablets, which were just bigger smartphones that did not make calls, and the rest of the line made Apple one to watch. But Apple’s product strategy seems to be losing some of that gee-whiz spirit that once ran riot through the operation. And recent questions about the new headset and its gaming chops are leaving investors concerned. Shares are down fractionally in Monday morning’s trading.
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A recent Bloomberg report pointed out that, when asked about the Apple Vision Pro headset and Apple’s strategy on that front, CEO Tim Cook briefly got a look that reminded some of a deer in headlights before calmly saying “Thanks for bringing it up” and pivoting to new software features. The feeling some came away with after that was that Apple did not particularly care about the Vision Pro. Thus, some are beginning to wonder why Apple is falling down on “immersive video,” which should be the Vision Pro’s bread and butter.
Worse yet, reports suggest that there are no radical improvements planned for the Vision Pro either. The next version is slated to only get an improved chip. Vital, but not exactly a game-changer; the more pronounced updates are set to hit in 2027. Some even wonder if, by then, the market will not simply end up leaving the Vision Pro behind in the meantime.
Apple’s Gaming Chops Falter Against the PC
Meanwhile, we know that Apple has the Apple Arcade, but Apple trying to compete with PC, or even consoles, often leaves it on the back foot. In fact, there are some that say Apple should not even try to compete with the PC gaming market, and let the current crop of rivals keep duking it out for supremacy without Apple involved.
Historically, Mac systems have been focused on productivity. They are whizzes with graphic design with coding, even with writing or photography. But they were never what anyone would call gaming platforms. Sure, you can play games on a Mac, but many of the current hardware offerings for gaming, especially graphics cards, are geared toward PC users. Gamers are left to regard games on an Apple system as a little something extra, not a dedicated draw.
Is Apple a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on AAPL stock based on 16 Buys, 11 Holds and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 2.52% rally in its share price over the past year, the average AAPL price target of $239.18 per share implies 3.61% upside potential.
