Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is in the midst of its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). In the past this has acted as a launch pad for many of Apple’s technological innovations. Practically all of the tech world has their eyes glued on this conference to see what Apple will do next, and analyst calls are beginning to pour in suggesting where this tech giant can go from here.

At the WWDC, Apple announced significant updates to its iPhone and iPad software in iOS 9, a new Mac OS called El Capitan, a new Apple Watch OS, a new music streaming service and updates to its Apple Pay roll-out. 24/7 Wall St. has included insight and color from key analysts on what they think about Apple’s WWDC.

To kick this off, Credit Suisse’s Kulbinder Garcha weighed in on this tech giant. The brokerage firm stated that Apple’s strong and growing feature set will continue to demonstrate integration between mobile devices and personal computers and highlights a competitive advantage in broader computing that neither Android nor Windows can emulate. Credit Suisse also believes that this, combined with a loyal developer community, remains Apple’s core competitive advantage. As a result the firm had an Outperform rating and a $145 price target.

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Oppenheimer detailed in its report:

Yesterday Apple held its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote speech. While there were no big surprises, investors shouldn’t overlook the multitude of tweaks Apple made to its OS. Cumulatively the updates will, in our view, further separate its ecosystem and UI from the competition. This supports our thesis that Apple will continue to outperform smartphone sales expectations and gives us confidence in our above-Street estimates for 2016. Arguably there is even upside to our numbers with the addition of Apple Music and a rejuvenated iPad interface. We reiterate out Outperform rating.

In the opinion of Wells Fargo, there were no real surprises at this year’s WWDC keynote, and specifically no new hardware or Apple TV related announcements. The firm believes that the most important announcement may be the open sourcing of the Swift programming language, though it does not expect any immediate benefits to Apple. The announcement that was largely expected by Wells Fargo was the new music service (Apple Music). The firm maintained its Market Perform rating and, at this point, it sees the transition to and growth of the next iPhone cycle as most important.
S&P Capital IQ maintained its Hold rating for Apple and explained why:

Apple announces upgrades to its Mac and mobile operating systems at its WWDC. We see some of the most notable enhancements including ProActive (integrates email, calendar, apps, etc.), upgrades to Siri and Maps, News app, and greater multitasking capabilities (split screen, picture-in-picture). We think the biggest update to the watchOS is the ability for developers to build apps natively on the watch, which will help apps run without the phone and will have other user benefits. Apple announces streaming music/radio for $9.99 per month (first 3 months free), launching June 30.

Merrill Lynch’s Wamsi Mohan brought up the point that although Apple did not note other monetization opportunities, the streaming business model could evolve over time as a product bundled with hardware, or it could be carrier subsidized if the adoption rates do not significantly increase.

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The firm detailed some of the new announcements from WWDC:

El Capitan adds better mission control, ability to split screen, and an updated Spotlight. The ‘Metal’ graphics API will also be available. With iOS9, it adds a more advanced Siri, which will act as a proactive assistant, and provide deeper search functions with app integration. Advanced multi-tasking features will be added to iOS. Apple also shifted its programming language Swift to open source, a good move to engage developers.

In the opinion of Merrill Lynch, Apple appears to be taking the user feedback from the smartwatch and is already introducing watchOS 2 to developers. The brokerage firm believes this is a positive development, considering a better user experience is key to driving increased Apple Watch adoption. Merrill Lynch has a Buy rating with a $145 price objective.

Shares of Apple were relatively flat at $127.65 Tuesday afternoon. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $148.75 and a 52-week trading range of $89.65 to $134.54.

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