Munster: Apple's Living Room Strategy Has 'New Life'

• Apple Inc. AAPL stock has risen 10.18 percent over the past year.
• Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster has maintained an Overweight rating and price target of $172 on the company, a recent note shows.
• On Wednesday, Apple announced the launch of several new products, including the iPhone 6S, iPad Pro and new Apple TV, largely in-line with expectations.

Munster believes that “there is substance in the new products, most notably that the iPhone 6S should have enough appeal, along with the lower price for existing iPhone 6 and Plus, to allow Apple to continue to gain share at the high end of the phone market.”

The key feature of the new iPhone 6S is the 3D Touch functionality, which enables new views and gestures, including glimpses of related content in other apps without having to exit the app being currently used. The company has reduced the price of the 6S and 6S Plus and Muster expects iPhone unit growth of 4 percent in 2016.

According to the Piper Jaffray report, “Apple meaningfully updated the Apple TV for the first time in about three years, including the announcement of tvOS, the new operating system for the device.”

The new Apple TV offers an improved interface, including Siri for voice and a touch screen remote. The new interface is expected to provide a better user experience. The company has also launched an App Store for the Apple TV, which already has 11 million registered developers.

“We believe that games are likely to be the biggest draw for TV apps and Apple highlighted a number of console games coming to Apple TV,” Munster added, while mentioning that “it shows the company still has the ability to innovate in relatively untapped markets and should be positive for the multiple.”