Chief Investment Strategist, The Freeport Society
If the iPhone were a person, it would be old enough to drive a car. In another year, it would be old enough to vote.
Apple (AAPL) introduced its signature product 17 years ago. Since then it has become such an integral part of our lives that it’s hard to remember what life was like before.
But 17 years is an eternity in the tech world, and Apple hasn’t had a truly blockbuster product or service since. Sure… the iPad, Apple Watch, and wearable tech like Airpods are all popular and have millions of users… but none were game changers like the iPhone.
Until now, that is…
Maybe…
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicks off on Monday, and this year the stakes are high. As our Freeport Society friend Luke Lango mentioned on Wednesday, Apple’s AI revolution might finally be here.
The tech giant has been quietly upgrading its hardware and operating systems to handle the processing workload that AI requires, and rumors have it that CEO Tim Cook has a major announcement planned about Apple’s push into this brave new world. Luke believes this announcement will include a partnership that could significantly boost a mostly unheard-of small-cap tech stock. He gives you the details in this video.
Now, contrary to popular belief…
Apple Hasn’t Been Absent From AI
The Siri digital assistant has been part of the iPhone experience since 2011. But Siri’s usefulness is limited. Frankly, about the only use I’ve found for Siri is changing the song on the car radio while I’m driving.
And Siri certainly doesn’t generate buzz like ChatGPT.
But this is where it gets interesting…
Apple’s strength is not in creating groundbreaking technology. It arguably hasn’t done that since its earliest days in Steve Jobs’ garage in the 1970s.
Instead, its true power is in integrating technology into everyday life, making it easy and maybe even cool.
And that’s what makes Monday so potentially world changing.
As Luke put it, “Imagine AI-driven personal assistants that anticipate your needs, smart home devices that adapt to your lifestyle, and health monitoring systems that provide real-time insights and recommendations. The possibilities are endless.”
We need this.
As I’ve been writing for the better part of the year in the Freeport Navigator, inflation has become endemic. It erupted due to the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented money printing and congress’s unprecedented peacetime deficit spending. Along the way, it took on a life of its own, becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Rising prices lead us to expect rising prices, which in turn causes rising prices.
At its core, this is a productivity problem. When demand is consistently higher than the economy’s ability to produce – when you have more buyers than sellers – prices rise. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about bananas at the supermarket or a teeth cleaning at your dentist’s office. When demand outstrips supply, prices rise.
Demographics play a major role here…
Our working age population hasn’t seen meaningful growth since 2016. As Baby Boomers age out of the workforce, young workers, fresh out of high school or college, are replacing them more or less one for one. But in the retiring Boomer, we’re losing a highly-productive worker with decades of experience… and replacing them with an inexperienced worker that will be a drag on productivity for the first several years of their careers until they learn the ropes.
We can’t snap our fingers and make highly-productive, fully trained workers appear out of the ether. But we can – and we must – get more productivity out of our existing workforce. AI is the most obvious way to do that. So we need companies like Apple to actually make it happen.
If I often come across as a curmudgeon in my writing, you know why. I spill a lot of ink critiquing government policy, and that’s not the sort of thing that tends to put a person in a good mood.
Despite that, I really am an optimist. For every monumentally stupid decision one of our fearless leaders in Washington makes, there is some brilliant entrepreneur at home working on the next big breakthrough… on something that really will make the world a better place.
And for every step we make on the road of exponential progress, there are investment opportunities we can take advantage of. That’s why we have several companies in our Freeport Investor model portfolio that are focused in this one area. It’s also why Luke watches this space so carefully.
The trick here is that it isn’t the big names we can make the most gains from. It’s the less obvious ones. Luke has found one such company that could see a massive boost come Monday and Apple’s announcement. He gives you the details in this video.
To life, liberty, and the pursuit of wealth.