Apple's (AAPL) recent unveiling of its iPhone 15 lineup and new smartwatches didn't impress everyone.
Though the iPhone maker is the largest company in the world, it still has room to improve, Needham analyst Laura Martin told Yahoo Finance Live this week.
"The product launch was very sleepable," Martin said (video above). "Nothing's new, nothing's exciting."
At the event at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, Apple showed off its latest smartphones, which include the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, the iPhone 15 Pro, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The company also announced new smartwatches, including the Apple Watch Series 9 and the higher-end Apple Watch Ultra 2.
One highlight of the annual event was Apple's new ad on its sustainability efforts, starring Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer.
"They took a very heavy hand on their environmental pledge to be carbon neutral by 2030, including a video where Tim Cook was sort of embarrassingly talking to Mother Nature and apologizing for his carbon footprint," Martin said. "They really put a lot of money into the brand of Apple yesterday because the product iterations were very mediocre."
Additionally, Martin stated that Apple is lagging far behind competitors Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Amazon (AMZN) when it comes to generative AI.
"Those three cloud companies, in our opinion, will end up twice as big as Apple in the end [when it comes to AI]," Martin said. "Apple will integrate generative AI into its own business, but my opinion is that every American company to survive will have to use generative AI to either lower costs or accelerate the product introduction."
However, not everyone agrees with Martin's analysis.
"Apple's iPhone 15 launch event was overall an impressive event which in our opinion lays the groundwork for a major upgrade cycle over the next year that will surprise the Street to the upside," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote on Sept. 13.
Wedbush upgraded its price target on Apple stock to $240 from $230 and reiterated an Outperform rating, citing the iPhone 15 upgrade cycle.
Allie Garfinkle is a Senior Tech Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @agarfinks and on LinkedIn.
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