Apple on track for ‘next era in personal technology’ – UBS

Mockery is usually the recourse of those who lack understanding, but two UBS analysts today spoke good sense on the future of Apple because they’ve shown they have a grip on what the company is doing.

UBS analysts Steven Milunovich and Benjamin Wilson say that investors are missing the point. The point being that iPhones don’t matter anymore and what does matter is to lay the bedrock for a multi-device, infinitely connected future. The analysts call this, “the Ambient Paradigm”, which I agree sounds a little ‘naff’, but is quite a good way to describe the future scenario in which:

• You walk into any room and can ask it to switch to your favorite temperature
• Where you can approach any computer, utter a few words and access everything you’ve been working on using your own computer securely on the new device
• You may be using 3D goggles and a 3D motion-based interface for some or all of your computing needs.
• Where the Apple Watch along with the AirPods and (so far mythical) goggles can work together to deliver some or all that you’d expect from your computer, from mapping to games, productivity and beyond.

“We consider the Apple Watch and AirPods similar transition products today on the way to an integrated user experience based on multiple products seamlessly connected,” the analysts said. “We call it the Ambient (present on all sides) Paradigm. It is Tim Cook’s ‘iOS everywhere,'” Milunovich writes.

It’s a future in which you slip and slide between devices, seamlessly, and always have what you need at your disposal, through conventional UI like keyboard and mouse, touch, voice and more. It’s an evolution across all Apple’s platforms that absolutely makes sense in terms of the direction the company has been going. Tied up with digital products and services and this should give you some kind of a sense of where Apple is going.

It kind of ties in with what I was trying to say here.