WWDC 2015 Didn’t Need to Rouse Investors

Apple shares were down half a percent about an hour before the company set the tone for the next 12 months with its keynote address at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday. That story continued through day two of WWDC 2015.

Still, the lead that couldn’t be buried was the fact that Apple was still moving at a pace that saw almost 75 million iPhone sales in the last quarter, and the biggest quarterly profits in corporate history.

Surprises Few, Far Between

WWDC 2015 hasn’t concluded yet, so the record books are still open, but one thing this year’s WWDC 2015 may threaten is the record is for confirming the most rumors floated ahead of the conference.

Apple’s announcements of El Capitan, a new version of OS X, and a refresh of its mobile operating system, iOS 9, required no puzzle pieces from unnamed sources.

Other confirmed rumors: the launch of Apple Music, and the introduction of HomeKit devices, both of which could have been sussed out with a check of Apple’s past acquisitions.

WWDC 2015 already has seen confirmation of Apple’s latest plans in the auto sector, though there’s undoubtedly much more the company didn’t share.

There were a few surprises, but it was the combination of tales from insiders and teases from Apple that left few observers shocked by the flurry of announcements.

The low-voltage, low-amp news out of WWDC 2015 apparently didn’t spark much interest on Wall Street, either — but that current has been electrifying the people who make Apple things, and it has made Apple a little more magnetic.

Developing Interest

The very name of the WWDC game is cultivating interest among those who build out from the foundation Apple has laid.

It doesn’t appear any of the event announcements will have a serious impact on Apple’s bottom line, observed Josiah Humphrey, co-CEO of Appster.

However, investments in Apple’s developer ecosystem in the form of more tools for creative devs ultimately will grow Apple’s gross take — and, ultimately, help the company retain customers, he said.

“For me, that is where the true bottom line growth will come from, but that is a long-term play,” Humphrey told the E-Commerce Times.

“Apple Music is an example of a venture that won’t have a huge impact on Apple’s revenues, as streaming music is a fairly low-margin business, but it provides more value to the company’s ecosystem, and more reasons for new customers to move into it,” he explained.

“That is how they have been and will continue to be successful,” Humphrey said. “They recently had a record quarter, making the most revenue of any company in history in one quarter — and from a growth perspective, they show no signs of slowing growth over the long term.”

Manufacturing Ideas

During WWDC 2015, Apple announced that it was updating the Apple Watch’s OS to support the development of native Watch apps by third parties. Android Wear has offered such capabilities for about a year now, but faithful developers and consumers have patiently waited for Apple to branch out into the wearables market.

There also has been more patience than pessimism on the part of investors. The company appears to have the Midas touch with most of the products and services it brings to market, noted Ritch Blasi, president of MediaRitch.

“While Apple Pay and the Apple Watch haven’t garnered the adoption curve of the iPhone or iPad, both support short-term growth by capturing the early adopters, and keep the company on the leading edge in capturing long-term opportunities,” he told the E-Commerce Times.

“When the company introduces new products and services, it seems to always deliver the highest quality possible, which allows for higher pricing and revenues,” Blasi remarked.

Apple has been doing enough right to keep it poised to be the first company ever to hit the trillion-dollar mark in market capitalization, but that doesn’t mean CEO Tim Cook and company have been operating perfectly.

Apple should focus less on “flavor-of-the-month” markets, Blasi suggested.

“If there’s anything they could do better,” remarked Appster’s Humphrey, “I’d say that it’s to invest even more into R&D, but you’d have to say they’re already doing a lot of that.”