Spurred by Apple touching a market valuation of $3T on Monday, Loup Ventures has posted a video to its YouTube channel, reminiscing on Apple’s past and considering the year ahead.
Loup Ventures principal Gene Munster ropes in team members Andrew Murphy and Doug Clinton for the discussion. Murphy and Munster see the big surprise for Apple this year being the Mixed Reality headset they and others expect the company to introduce.
Upon hearing that, my initial thought was, “how could that be a surprise?” Then I remembered all of the people who buy iPhones in August of a given year, apparently oblivious to new iPhones on the way in 60-days or less. While we don’t know everything about Apple’s mixed reality whatzit, it would be hard to call its announcement a surprise, pretty much from now on. Then again, Munster & Co. point out that even though everyone knew Apple was about to announce an iPhone in 2007, it was still surprising when Apple actually did it, while the device itself was full of surprises.
For his part, Mr. Clinton says the big surprise for 2022 will be intensifying talk of Apple Car. He’s not looking for Apple to actually announce the car, he just thinks rumors will get hotter and heavier. I do not see on what planet that could be a surprise.
As for the fate of Apple shares, the Loup Ventures site says:
Shares of AAPL will continue to move higher with a $250 price target based on 2022 investor euphoria, in anticipation for two new product categories (metaverse and autonomy) that should increase the multiple on AAPL.
I’m back to wondering whether they know what “surprise” means.
I will say, while I’ve been following Mr. Munster for years, that following has mostly been reading what he’s written. Seeing him in conversation on Loup TV was interesting. He tells a story about iPod’s “halo effect” in action. He also pokes fun at himself for his years-long belief that Apple was going to release a television. No, he does not still believe that, but he asks Tim Cook for one anyway. That part’s funny. It’s a short discussion - about 12-minutes total. You can check it out below.
