• Subscribe
  • Log In
  • Home
  • Daily Diary
  • Asset Class
    • U.S. Equity
    • Fixed Income
    • Global Equity
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
  • Sector
    • Basic Materials
    • Consumer Discretionary
    • Consumer Staples
    • Energy
    • Financial Services
    • Healthcare
    • Industrials
    • Real Estate
    • Technology
    • Telecom Services
    • Transportation
    • Utilities
  • Latest
    • Articles
    • Video
    • Columnist Conversations
    • Best Ideas
    • Stock of the Day
  • Street Notes
  • Authors
    • Bruce Kamich
    • Doug Kass
    • Jim "Rev Shark" DePorre
    • Helene Meisler
    • Jonathan Heller
    • - See All -
  • Options
  • RMPIA
  • Switch Product
    • Action Alerts PLUS
    • Quant Ratings
    • Real Money
    • Real Money Pro
    • Retirement
    • Stocks Under $10
    • TheStreet
    • Top Stocks
    • Trifecta Stocks
  1. Home
  2. / Investing
  3. / Technology

Apple's Latest Hardware Launches Have Some Important Strategic Implications

Apple showed off what appears to be a superior 3D depth-mapping solutions, and it also gave the iPad trackpad support.
By ERIC JHONSA
Mar 20, 2020 | 06:00 AM EDT
Stocks quotes in this article: AAPL

Though it's hard to fault anyone who paid less attention to Apple's (AAPL) Wednesday product launches than he or she normally would, there does appear to be a couple of important strategic implications to what Tim Cook's company revealed.

Apple, to recap, revealed new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros that replace models launched in the fall of 2018. And it refreshed the 13-inch MacBook Air for the third time in 18 months (a major refresh was announced in the fall of 2018, and a smaller one in July 2019).

While there's a pretty long list of changes and improvements that one could cover while discussing Apple's new hardware, two things in particular stand out from a long-term, strategic standpoint:

  1. Apple revealed a 3D depth-mapping solution for the iPad Pro's rear cameras that appears to be superior to what rival mobile OEMs have launched to date.
  2. Via both iPad Pro and MacBook Air announcements, Apple signaled that it's serious about competing against sub-$1,000 Windows notebooks and notebook/tablet convertibles.

The iPad Pro's LiDAR Scanner

The 3D depth-mapping solution is made possible through the placement of (along with a pair of cameras) a LiDAR scanner on the back of Apple's new iPad Pro. LiDAR, which to date has been more associated with autonomous driving systems, uses laser light that's invisible to the human eye to measure how far away an object is. By doing so, it can create accurate 3D depth maps of objects that are hit with the light pulses and send back reflections.

Android OEMs such as Samsung and Huawei, it's worth noting, have already launched phones featuring time-of-flight (ToF) sensors that can also create 3D depth maps of objects. However, for now at least, these solutions can only work with a particular object scene -- for example, to get the object's measurements or to blur out its background.

By contrast, Apple asserts that its LiDAR scanner can (with the help of cameras, sensors and computer vision algorithms) deliver "a more detailed understanding" of an entire scene, in addition to measuring and tracking individual objects. The company shared a few demos to prove its point: One involved scanning a living room to figure out where to place streams of virtual lava for an augmented reality game called Hot Lava, while another involved using CAD app Shapr3D to make a 3D model of a room that could be subsequently edited.

Odds are pretty good that Apple will also put a LiDAR scanner within its 2020 flagship iPhones (particularly given past reports). And in some form or another, it's also likely that Apple will bake this technology into the AR and VR headsets that (per multiple reports) it's working on.

iPad Pro Trackpad Support and Another MacBook Air Price Cut

Meanwhile, by announcing that the newest version of iPadOS (iPadOS 13.4) will support trackpads, and by rolling out a new Magic Keyboard accessory for both new and older iPad Pros that features a built-in trackpad, Apple made its sales pitch for using the iPad Pro as a notebook substitute stronger.

The move follows the introduction of several new iPad multitasking features last year, and also coincides with the updating of the iPad apps for Apple's iWork productivity suite to support trackpads and mice. It might not be too long before third-party developers of popular productivity and content-creation apps update their apps as well.

Separately, Apple cut the price of the MacBook Air by $100 for the second time in less than a year. The base model now starts at $999, with people associated with educational institutions getting another $100 off.

Together with the refreshed MacBook Air's CPU, storage and keyboard improvements, the price cut does a lot to bolster the low end of Apple's MacBook lineup. And in a consumer spending environment like the current one, it definitely doesn't hurt to have stronger low-end positioning.

Get an email alert each time I write an article for Real Money. Click the "+Follow" next to my byline to this article.
TAGS: Investing | Technology

More from Technology

Atlassian Is Now in the Latter Stages of Its Decline

Bruce Kamich
Jun 24, 2022 12:22 PM EDT

Let's check the charts and indicators.

Wolfspeed Could Start to Run With the Pack

Bruce Kamich
Jun 24, 2022 7:55 AM EDT

Here's how aggressive traders can play this tech stock.

Chinese Tech Company Ximalaya Pulls Planned IPO Yet Again

Alex Frew McMillan
Jun 24, 2022 6:30 AM EDT

Poor market conditions and the uncertain status of Chinese tech listings cause the podcast market leader to put off its Hong Kong IPO.

Will This Year's Energy and Commodity Trades Become Last Year's Tumbling Tech?

Helene Meisler
Jun 24, 2022 6:00 AM EDT

I can't remember the last time anyone asked me about Apple. No one cares.

Remember All the Hype Around Palantir?

Bruce Kamich
Jun 23, 2022 12:52 PM EDT

Here's how the charts look now.

Real Money's message boards are strictly for the open exchange of investment ideas among registered users. Any discussions or subjects off that topic or that do not promote this goal will be removed at the discretion of the site's moderators. Abusive, insensitive or threatening comments will not be tolerated and will be deleted. Thank you for your cooperation. If you have questions, please contact us here.

Email

CANCEL
SUBMIT

Email sent

Thank you, your email to has been sent successfully.

DONE

Oops!

We're sorry. There was a problem trying to send your email to .
Please contact customer support to let us know.

DONE

Please Join or Log In to Email Our Authors.

Email Real Money's Wall Street Pros for further analysis and insight

Already a Subscriber? Login

Columnist Conversation

  • 08:55 AM EDT JAMES "REV SHARK" DEPORRE

    This Weekend on Real Money

    The 10 personality traits of successful traders an...
  • 12:08 PM EDT STEPHEN GUILFOYLE

    Stocks Under $10

    As a Portfolio Name Agrees to a Merger, Here's Our...
  • 10:44 AM EDT PAUL PRICE

    My Very Best Pick for the Next 12 Months

    American Woodmark . It rarely gets better than th...
  • See More

COLUMNIST TWEETS

  • A Twitter List by realmoney
About Privacy Terms of Use

© 1996-2022 TheStreet, Inc., 225 Liberty Street, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10281

Need Help? Contact Customer Service

Except as otherwise indicated, quotes are delayed. Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes for all exchanges. Market Data & Company fundamental data provided by FactSet. Earnings and ratings provided by Zacks. Mutual fund data provided by Valueline. ETF data provided by Lipper. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions Group.

TheStreet Ratings updates stock ratings daily. However, if no rating change occurs, the data on this page does not update. The data does update after 90 days if no rating change occurs within that time period.

FactSet calculates the Market Cap for the basic symbol to include common shares only. Year-to-date mutual fund returns are calculated on a monthly basis by Value Line and posted mid-month.

Compare Brokers

Please Join or Log In to manage and receive alerts.

Follow Real Money's Wall Street Pros to receive real-time investing alerts

Already a Subscriber? Login