While Apple's new video app may look a bit like Snapchat, it has one pretty big difference, Loup Ventures managing partner Gene Munster said.
"It's really not a competitor to Snapchat — which I originally thought when I read about it — because they don't have an actual network," Munster told CNBC's "Squawk Alley" on Tuesday. "That piece of it is pretty set in stone — that they're still learning about how they can influence AR."
Clips is a new free app, available in April on iOS 10.3, that helps users combine video clips, photos and music to share through messages and social media. The app automatically recognizes people in videos and suggests them as recipients of the messages, Apple said. It includes various elements, such as emojis, that are popular in Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, Google Photos and Musical.ly.
Videos taken on Clips can be shared on Apple's Messages app, or on Instagram, Facebook and other popular social networks, Apple said in a release. It's unclear if Snapchat will be included, although Snaps are typically not uploaded from outside the app, and Snapchat is not listed on the Clips website.
Related: How Apple could leapfrog Snapchat and make the next iPhone a must-have
"Apple doesn't have an underlying social network to capitalize on this," Walter Isaacson, who wrote the authorized biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, said on "Squawk Alley." "It will be interesting to see if they try once again to do it."
"If you really dig into this Clips, it's more about them working with filters and augmented reality," Munster said. "That's more of an indication where Apple's going longer term — that caught my attention."
Munster, formerly a top Apple analyst at Piper Jaffray, has been hot on the trail of Apple's augmented reality ambitions. A refreshed iPhone might generate some extra sales for Apple, but he said that it's unlikely to have a big impact. IPads aren't a huge piece of Apple's sales either, Munster said.
"Longer term, the significance of augmented reality for Apple is having a place at the table in the future of computing, which will shift to AR," Munster said. "Separately is building their services business. What they want to do is have app developers create these wicked great experiences that they can take 30 percent from."
Fresh off an IPO, Snap has revealed that most of its engagement comes from iPhone users. But Snap — which also enables video editing and filtering — has made strides to break free from the iPhone ecosystem with its glasses, Spectacles.
Isaacson also addressed reports about Apple building some kind of augmented reality glasses. "I kind of thought Google Glass would work, so I'm the wrong person to ask," Isaacson said. "Apple is a company that executes well. It will be interesting to see if they can ... one, create a piece of hardware for augmented reality, and secondly, to somehow or another attach it to a social network."
Apple introduced Clips alongside a slew of new and upgraded products on Tuesday, including a red aluminum iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, a cheaper iPad, and new Watch accessories and cases.
Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal is an investor in Snap.