Just days before it will report quarterly results, Apple (AAPL) – Get Free Report launched a slew of new products in a Monday night event the company dubbed “Scary Fast.” The event focused on the reveal of Apple’s new Mac lineup, simultaneously showcasing the company’s next-generation computer chips.
This next generation of chips, called the “M3 family,” features what Apple refers to as “industry-leading 3-nanometer technology” and faster, more efficient GPUs, the kind of computer chip used to power artificial intelligence.
The company additionally said that the new MacBooks take advantage of a litany of entirely recycled materials.
Related: Apple’s new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro are faster and come in a sleek new shade
The new lineup ranges in cost from $1,599 for a standard 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 chip, to $4,000 for the 16-inch Pro, loaded up with a terabyte of storage, the M3 Max and 48 gigabytes of RAM.
DeepWater Management’s Gene Munster, likening the unusual prime-time event to the drama inherent to many of Elon Musk’s Tesla (TSLA) – Get Free Report events, said that the important takeaway from the event centers around the new chip lineup, which features that combination of CPU and GPU cores.
Apple, whose market cap has fallen to $2.6 trillion, leads the Magnificent 7 as the world’s largest company.
“What jumps out to me is the Max chip can be used for AI developers,” Munster wrote. “That said, Nvidia (NVDA) – Get Free Report GPU chips are still better geared for model training and sold as standalone. You have to buy a Mac to get the M3 Max. Apple’s and oranges.”
Though the company dropped the price of its 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M3 chip to $1,599 from $1,999, Munster noted that Apple also dropped the 13.3-inch MacBook from the lineup. That computer, at $1,299, was considered the entry-level Mac.
Now, Munster said, the entry-level Mac runs several hundred dollars higher.
“That’s the magic of Apple, setting the table to get consumers to stretch to higher priced products,” Munster wrote.
To Munster, the bottom line of the event is that it should give a boost to Mac sales growth for the December quarter.
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And with Apple set to report Q4 earnings on Thursday — in which analysts are expecting to see earnings of $1.39 per share and revenue of around $90 billion — Munster said that the big pressure point for the stock is demand and diversification in China.
Shares of Apple, up around 30% for the year, dipped slightly Tuesday.
“Apple’s brand reach is next level,” Munster added. “About 9.2m people watched the first game of the World Series. Compare that to about 4.2m people that watched Apple’s Scary Fast Event on Youtube.”
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