Apple Inc. announced that its biggest product launch event of the year will take place on 13 October.
The Cupertino, California-based tech giant on Tuesday announced the event, titled “Hi, Speed.”
The company plans to unveil four redesigned iPhones with 5G wireless capabilities, upgraded cameras, faster processors and a wider range of screen sizes.
The online event will be Apple’s second product launch this year, after the company announced a new iPad Air, a refreshed entry-level iPad and an updated Apple Watch in September.
The launch of the new iPhones comes around a month later than usual as the company faced delays in final testing and production due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite the proliferation of services and new devices, the iPhone remains Apple’s most important product. The smartphone generates around half of Apple’s revenue and is the main driver of sales of AirPods and Apple Watch. iPhone is also the device most often used to sign up for services and download applications, which in many cases reduces Apple’s revenue.
5G wireless support on new iPhones will allow Apple to benchmark itself against the latest offerings from Samsung Electronics Co, Google and others.
Bloomberg News reports that the new series will also mark Apple’s biggest screen size variation in many years, with the addition of a 5.4-inch model and a 6.7-inch version.
The new phones will have the biggest redesign since the iPhone X in 2017, adding square edges to replace the current rounded edges. The four models will be split into two entry-level versions and two Pro versions, with more expensive phones using stainless steel and cheaper devices using aluminium.
Apple plans to add a depth-sensing camera, Lidar Scanner, to the more expensive models to enhance augmented reality applications. The company is expected to remove the rechargeable AC adapter from the new iPhone boxes, which Apple believes will help the environment. The change could also potentially save the company tens of millions of dollars a year.
Even with the announcement, which will be just next week, some of the new models will not be widely available for several weeks due to supply constraints.
In addition to the new iPhones, the company is working on headphones and physical tracking tags that will be unveiled later this year. Apple also plans to announce Macs with its own processors in November.
Source: Bloomberg(https://www.bloomberg.com/news…)
