Apple analyst Gene Munster is launching his own VC-fund, and as a result, Michael Olson will be taking over coverage of Apple over at PiperJaffray.The departing commentary from Gene Munster was quite interesting. Olson’s follow on coverage suggests that the next product cycle is where investors stand to make substantial money.Here were some of the most pertinent points (pertaining to software) from Munster’s final sell-side note:However, we believe it will be a tough road to get investors to accept Apple as a services business instead of hardware. Specifically, we believe most investors would need to see Apple deriving at least 30% of its revenue from Services to give it more credit for the higher margin segment. For Apple to be considered a “Services company,” we believe it would need to be 50% of total revenue.I’m not exactly certain when or if software revenue will inflect to be 50% of Apple’s total revenue, but it would be far more supportive of sustained revenue/earnings CAGR in the long-run.Furthermore, Michael Olson goes onto mention in a note released on Friday (last week):Said differently, while we do not anticipate an iPhone miss in the Dec or Mar quarters, as some investors fear, if estimates prove to be overly aggressive, we believe downside for AAPL would be limited, with optimism related to iPhone X acting as a backstop. If, Apple hits 1H FY17 estimates, we think AAPL shares are positioned to run into the Fall '17 launch of the 10th anniversary device. Our expectation is for the latter, with the company hitting 1H iPhone estimates, based primarily on relatively easy comps. Specifically, in the Dec quarter, we are modeling for y/y iPhone unit growth to improve 800bps, but this is on a 2200bps easier comp.Michael Olson anticipates that Dec. quarter iPhone shipments will grow 8%, but mostly due to a 22% easier comp in comparison to the iPhone 6 (FY’15). The drop off over the course of FY’16 as a result of a tepid iPhone 6S launch makes it that much easier for Apple to sustain revenue growth from FY’17 onwards. However, even if Apple were to miss on estimates, the share price wouldn’t be that affected. While, I’m certain shareholders would worry over FY’17 weakness, the software/services component is growing much quicker than the hardware business, which helps ease off the dependence on hardware, and is also a significant margin contributing category (depending on which figures you work off of). I’m anticipating Apple to perform above consensus when it announces earnings next quarter.