Apple map service finds fans on Wall Street

It unveiled a slew of new services including mobile mapping and jazzed up technology for its Siri voice assistant

Apple Inc won plaudits from Wall Street analysts after unveiling a slew of new services including mobile mapping and jazzed up technology for its Siri voice assistant.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, who took over from late co-founder Steve Jobs last August, took the wraps off new services and updates at the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, clearly setting his sights on Google Inc and its fast-growing Android mobile platform.

Canaccord Genuity raised its price target on Apple's stock by $25 to $800, saying it was impressed with the company's refreshed range of Macbook Pro and Macbook Air laptops.

 

The brokerage also praised Apple's new mobile software, the iOS6, saying the new features would help it gain market share.

Apple tweaked its mobile software to entice users to stay within Apple's ecosystem and introduced its own in-house map service, taking on Google, which gets about half its mobile map traffic from Apple mobile devices.

"We are more intrigued with the new maps app, greater social networking integration," Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu said in a note. "We find these 'under the radar' software enhancements significant and will drive more adoption of the Apple platform."

Wu kept his 'buy' rating and $780 price target on the stock.

Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple were up slightly at $574.88 in premarket trade on Tuesday. They closed at $571.17 on Monday on the Nasdaq.