Apple
AAPL
recently extended services of its Maps application to many U.S. cities like Chicago, Detroit, and other Midwestern U.S. cities with cycling directions to help cyclists find the best route with bike lane.
Per
9to5Mac
, the update began rolling out on Apr 15. The recent upgrades will help cyclists find the best biking routes that might be better on traffic and enable the elevation of roads so that cyclists can avoid steep climbs.
Apple has already expanded the services to the northeastern part of the country earlier this month. With the recent expansion, Apple is now providing cycling directions for almost 26% of the U.S. territory, with 52% of the country’s population covered. This recent expansion is expected to directly contribute to Apple’s services revenues.
The current economic turmoil has impacted Apple’s shares negatively. The company’s shares have depreciated 7% in the year-to-date period compared with the Zacks
Computer-Mini Computers
industry and the Zacks
Computer and Technology
sector’s decline of 6.4% and 18.2%, respectively.
Investors are wary as a higher interest rate environment is expected to continue in 2022 due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. It has resulted in higher commodity prices, which may curtail U.S. GDP growth in first-quarter 2022. It is worth mentioning that the U.S. inflation rate is currently at a 40-year high. This has resulted in demand for Apple products like the flagship iPhone decrease and is also expexted to increase production cost.
Apple’s robust business model to provide updated software with new features across all its offerings and the services business is becoming the key differentiator for the company’s profitability as demand for Apple iphone and Apple watch is decreasing. Apple currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here
.
Apple Upgrades: The Key to Beat Rising Competition
The recent Apple Maps upgrade is expected to intensify its competition with
Alphabet
’s
GOOGL
Google Maps.
Alphabet’s Google recently upgraded its map services with new features to attract more customers even among iPhone users. Google maps has been upgraded with toll prices for the first time to help drivers decide when to take toll roads and regular roads to avoid traffic.
Also, the new features can be easily accessible from the iOS home screen in the iPhone and let users navigate with Google maps using the Apple watch. These new upgrades will help Google attract iPhone users to their map services.
Apple is expected to update the iOS and watchOS with new health-tracking features after the company expands the Fitness + program by introducing a postpartum fitness program to the service.
Apple Watch’s new upgrade in the Fitness + program will help the company fend off competition from the likes of
Garmin
GRMN
.
Garmin has been able to benefit from the growing fitness business amid the pandemic with its different smartwatches to meet the diverse needs of outdoor hikers, swimmers as well as other health enthusiasts.
Although Apple is far from announcing any update for its mixed reality headset, the beta version of iOS 16 code named Sydney is expected to be filled with updates for the headset and its probable interaction with the iPhone.
This indicates that the mixed reality headset is expected to be launched during the lifecycle of iOS 16, thus intensifying competition with
Microsoft
MSFT
in the augmented reality space.
Microsoft’s HoloLens 2, which is a mixed-reality device, has gained enterprise adoption and captured customers’ attention by developing the next generation of computing by combining mixed reality and Dynamics 365.
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