Further Take on Apples New Product

Ben Evans is a partner at Andreessen Horowitz (also known as 'a16z'), a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley that invests in software companies. His biography page says "I try to work out what's going on and what will happen next".

His latest blog post deals with the announcements from Apple at last week's event in Cupertino, at their fancy new headquarters building. The highlights were the new iPhone 11 range of phones, updates to Apple's services offerings, and Apple TV+.



These are Evans' key observations. All smartphones are great these days, but there is still scope for innovation in cameras. The iPhone 11 Pro has three lenses and amazing onboard software. Taking even greater a pictures with very little effort is a top reason to buy the latest model. I'm in!

The services innovations are ongoing, and make it even easier to live inside Apple's ecosystem. The interfaces between the hardware and the services is very smooth. For example, I like the way that Apple Music works with my Apple Watch and AirPods.

Finally, Apple's TV service looks interesting but is not likely to disrupt industry leaders like Netflix, for now. Apple has assembled some impressive content ahead of the 1 November launch, but the streaming service is priced at only $4.99 per month. Everyone is spending a lot on original content.

Apple stock rose after the event announcements and closed the week at $218.75 per share. Of course, we are still firm holders of Apple and will continue to buy the stock for new clients, and those adding to their existing portfolios.

Read the full blog post by Ben Evans here: Apple, services and moats.