While Apple has touted total iPhone sales of one billion, the number sold in the quarter ending June 25 fell 15% from a year earlier, highlighting concerns over growth for the key profit driver.
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The official announcement at Apple’s San Francisco event Wednesday comes after weeks of leaks and speculation about the next iPhone. Later this year, an update will add a new depth-of-field effect for iPhone 7 Plus. The devices come with quite a few upgrades.
Beyond the subtle changes to the antenna lines, the most notable visual cue of the fact you’re holding an iPhone 7 instead of an iPhone 6S is the camera bump. “They don’t like the mess”, said Jan Dawson, a tech analyst with Jackdaw Research.
In one year, the Apple Watch became the #2 watch brand in the world, behind Rolex.
Although the first version of the Apple Watch can tap the Global Positioning System function on a companion iPhone, that requires carrying another device with you. But even that was built to eject water after a swim. The iPhone Upgrade Programme is available at Apple Stores with monthly payments starting at £33 based on a 20-month instalment loan.
The flagship devices will be sold at roughly the same price as the models they replace, starting at $649 for the iPhone 7 for USA customers, with deliveries in 25 countries beginning September 16. The newest iPhone models come with a new image processing engine, which, Apple claims, delivers better, faster pictures.
Those first-gen lower prices were more important than the next-gen specs, contended Carolina Milanesi, an analyst with Creative Strategies.
Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, concurred. “We’re in good shape for a nice sales cycle here, so I’m encouraged”. The iPhone 7 uses an Apple-designed performance controller that decides which processes should run on each core. “They changed every single thing about it except for the shape. Water-resistant. Stereo speakers. Longer battery life”. “Consumers underestimate the engineering feats that the iPhone 7 brings, like the audio, camera, processing power, etc.in such a small package”, she said in a statement. Together these cameras give the iPhone an optical zoom at 2x and a digital zoom up to 10x. Susan Prescott, vice president of worldwide apps marketing, demonstrated the new capabilities on stage, showing how the update enables users to live-edit presentations via the Mac, iPhone, iPad or Web.
It’s likely Apple will decide to charge a premium for this new configuration. Where the Plus was previously only about a larger screen, now it’s about that and a better camera. Either way, Apple promises that both back cameras are capable of capturing moments with richer colors with the help of the True-Tone flash that now has four LEDs. “It’s not just its size, but also the camera, which is a big deal”.
Apple also announced a trio of new wireless Beats headphones – Beats Solo3 and Powerbeats3 and BeatsX – that have Apple’s new wireless chip and will retail for $299.95, $199.95 and $149.95, respectively. First up Apple’s removed the 3.5mm headphone port, which means you’ll need to go wireless or use the Lightning port (plus an adapter for any existing headphones). The new headphones supplied by Apple with the phone will plug into the same port as the recharging cord, but it will also work with Apple’s new wireless headphones, called Air Pods, available in late October at a price of $159. The decision is a controversial one, given how many of Apple’s millions of customers may be using expensive wired headphones.
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Apple (AAPL) on Wednesday introduced its second-generation Apple Watch, some 16 months after the company debuted its first smartwatch, and had some Nintendo and Nike news as well. The iPhone 7 Plus starts at $769 with 32 GB.
