Evercore Stoked Over AR and Apple’s Chances in It
13 MAY 2022 - Evercore has hosted a webinar focused on realities augmented and virtual. Though Apple did not participate, Evercore analyst Amit Daryanani finished the event as stoked as ever around Apple and its AR/VR prospects. Apple 3.0 ran part of a note he wrote. Among the analyst’s key takeaways:
AR glasses could command a smartphone-sized market, while VR will be limited to console-size
Companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google are likely to win the AR game since you need a 1,2,3 combo of hardware, software, and developers
“There is no shortage of killer AR applications that will drive consumer adoption,” writes the analyst, “so the limiting factor here is really around the hardware and getting that to an acceptable form factor.”
Daryanani and Friends expect “major launches” from big players in the next 18 months. Being first won’t mean much though, “because first gen products will likely be very limited in their applications,” in the analyst’s estimation. “Net/net,” he writes:
We remain bullish on the long-term AR opportunity and we continue to think Apple will release the category defining product even if they aren’t first to market.
Daryanani has an “Outperform” rating on Apple shares. His price target on the shares is $210.