Apple promised its biggest product launch of the year would be “awe-dropping”. Investors thought otherwise.
The launch offered familiar sights: a slimmer iPhone, updated AirPods Pro 3 and Apple Watches.
For fans, the iPhone Air is the company’s thinnest handset yet, but in 2025 a thinner phone hardly qualifies as “awe-dropping.”
AI ambitions were largely absent, aside from live translation in the new AirPods – a small, incremental win unlikely to move the needle on sales.
Shares dipped 3.2 per cent on Wednesday, which wasn’t surprising. Apple often performs poorly on the day of iPhone launches, notes Bespoke Investment, partly because the stock often gains prior to such announcements.
This year was different, in that Apple shares have been weak – the stock is down 7 per cent, even as other technology stocks have advanced. However, Apple had rallied since July, gaining more than $400 billion (€341 billion) in market capitalisation due to relief from Trump tariffs and an antitrust ruling allowing Google to continue paying billions to remain the default search engine on Apple’s Safari browser.
Adding to those gains always looked tricky. Valued at $3.4 trillion (€2.9 trillion), Apple trades on almost 30 times estimated earnings – more than most of its magnificent seven counterparts, despite weaker growth figures.
With a still lofty valuation and AI questions unresolved, Apple’s “awe-dropping” launch left investors underwhelmed, and seeking more than a thinner handset.
