Consumer electronics giant Apple on Monday touted features of its next smartphone operating system that will power the upcoming iPhone 14 and older compatible handsets. It also showed off a second-generation Mac processor for two new laptops. Apple stock rose after the event.
Apple made the announcements during a keynote presentation at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, which runs Monday through Friday. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company is hosting the conference online instead of in person for the third straight year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
At WWDC, Apple is showcasing the latest innovations in its device operating systems: iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS. The enhancements to Apple's operating systems will provide clues to the capabilities of upcoming products.
"We pushed our software platforms in some incredible new ways," Chief Executive Tim Cook said during the prerecorded keynote. He said news at the show would be targeted to the company's more than 34 million software developers worldwide.
Apple Stock Rises After Keynote
On the stock market today, Apple stock climbed 0.5% to 146.14 after the 106-minute keynote. Apple stock initially dipped following the surprise-free event.
Apple's upcoming iPhone operating system, iOS 16, includes new personalization options for the lock screen and updates to the Messages, Wallet and Maps apps. With iOS 16, users will be able to add widgets for glanceable data such as weather, calendar and sports tracking to the lock screen. Plus, users will get a new view of notifications so they don't overwhelm the screen.
The update to the Messages app will let users edit recently sent messages to fix misspellings and typos. Users also can unsend recent messages if they have second thoughts about them.
The company also debuted a new feature for iCloud that allows family members to more easily share photos to a unified library.
New Chips, Laptops
Apple announced its next-generation of processors for Mac computers called the M2. The M2 chip is built at 5-nanometer scale and boasts significantly faster processing and graphics performance than the M1. It will be featured in two new notebook computers: the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. Those laptops will be available next month.
Apple stock has an IBD Composite Rating of 74 out of 99, according to IBD Stock Checkup. IBD's Composite Rating combines five separate proprietary ratings into one easy-to-use rating. The best growth stocks have a Composite Rating of 90 or better.
Follow Patrick Seitz on Twitter at @IBD_PSeitz for more stories on consumer technology, software and semiconductor stocks.
