Blog: Bigger, pricier iPhone shown at Apple event

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Philip W. Schiller, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing of Apple, speaks about the the new Apple iPhone XR at an Apple Inc product launch event at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California.- Reuters
Philip W. Schiller, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing of Apple, speaks about the the new Apple iPhone XR at an Apple Inc product launch event at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California.- Reuters

Apple unveiled a slew of new products, including its priciest iPhones and a smartwatch.

By Alvin Cabral (Reporting from Apple Park, California)

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Published: Wed 12 Sep 2018, 8:00 PM

Last updated: Thu 13 Sep 2018, 5:22 PM

Apple unveiled three new iPhones on Wednesday, including its biggest and most expensive model yet, as the company seeks to widen the product's appeal amid slowing sales.
CEO Tim Cook showed off the Apple XS, which has a bigger screen than the one on last year's dramatically designed model , the iPhone X. A bigger version will be called the iPhone XS Max, which looks to be about the size of the iPhone 8 Plus, though the screen size is much bigger.
As with the iPhone X, the new phone has a screen that runs from edge to edge, an effort to maximize the display without making the phone too awkward to hold. The screen needs no backlight, so black would appear as truly black rather than simply dark.
This even-bigger iPhone represents Apple's attempt to feed consumers' appetite for increasingly larger screens as they rely on smartphones to watch and record video, as well as take photos wherever they are.
The iPhone X also got rid of the home button to make room for more screen and introduced facial-recognition technology to unlock the device.
By making more expensive iPhones, Apple has been able to boost its profits despite waning demand as people upgrade phones less frequently. IPhones fetched an average price of $724 during the April-June period, a nearly 20 per cent increase from a year earlier.
Apple also showed off a cheaper iPhone, called the iPhone XR. It is made of aluminum, and smaller than the iPhone 8 Plus in physical size, but has a bigger screen.
Worldwide smartphone sales grew just 2 pe rcent during that period, according to the research firm Gartner Inc. During the second quarter, which is typically slow for Apple, China's Huawei Technologies surpassed Apple as the second-largest seller of smartphones, based on Gartner's calculations. Samsung remained in the lead.
Apple also announced updates that push its Apple Watch further into medical device territory. It has a larger screen and a built-in heart sensor that the company said can detect irregular heart rates and perform an electrocardiogram. The latter feature has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration, the company said.
These features will be available to U.S. customers later this year, but Apple did not say when it would make it to the rest of the world.
In addition, Apple says the Series 4 Apple Watch will also be able to detect when someone falls - and can tell the difference between a trip and a fall. If it detects a fall and the user doesn't respond in a minute, it'll automatically call for help. This feature may be especially attractive to older people or those with elderly parents worried about falling when no one is around to help.
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Blow-by-blow account of the event.

10:50pm

And that's a wrap. For all the speculation, Apple kept it zeroed in on the new iPhones and the watch.
Thanks for staying with us!

10:45pm

The UAE will once again be one of the first regions to get the first crack at the new flagships. 512GB option will be available for the XS. Wonder how much that would be?

10:26pm

Apple's Schiller introduces new iPhone model. iPhone XR will be made of aluminum in white, black, blue, coral and yellow finishes.

10:18pm

iPhone XS and XS Max boast of a dual sim support. One uses a physical SIM and the other an eSIM.

10:11pm

Phil Schiller explaining the new Smart HDR on the iPhone XS. It basically, takes a lot of snaps, chooses the best and merges them into the best possible shot. A12 Bionic at work.

10:09pm

Some bump-ups on the iPhone XS, dual-camera system.one trillion operations a second?

10:02pm

Two-time NBA's Most Valuable Player and hall of famer Steve Nash is here. He has teamed up with HomeCourt (the Basketball App on the App Store) for a shot science app.

9:58pm

Bethesda (video game company) sampling the new 'The Elder Scrolls: Blades' game on the iPhone XS Max.

9:55pm

The Siri shortcuts will now available on iOS 12 and will let you ring up a string of commands in one.

9:46pm

Philip W. "Phil" Schiller, the senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple Inc. explaining the A12 Bionic chip, which is the industry's first 7 nanometer chip. It is so fast that it can process 5 trillion operations per second as compared to A11's 600 billion.

9:42pm

The iPhone XS Max is launched with measures 6.5 inches.

9:39pm

The most beautiful and the most powerful of the phones is here. The new iPhone is the iPhone XS.

9:35pm

UAE will be one of the first markets to get the new Apple Watch Series 4. The pre-orders will start on September 14 and the product will be available on September 31. The watchOS 5 will be available on September 17.

9:31pm

Design guru Jony Ive summing everything about the new Apple Watch Series 4. It will be available in new gold stainless steel colours and the bands from the earlier generation will still fit in it.

 9:20pm

The Apple Watch Series has a new processor that promises to work two times faster and can now detect a fall. It can also detect atrial fibrillation, low heart rate and is the first over-the-counter ECG product for consumers.

 9:14 pm

Apple Watch Series 4 unveiled. Bigger than expected, "completely re-engineered".

 9:07 pm

Apple CEO Tim Cook conveys the fact that Apple is close to shipping two billion devices.

 9:03 pm

Apple CEO Tim Cook makes a dramatic entry with a hilarious video!

8:55pm

Apple is all set to unveil new iPhones

8:50pm

This is the start of everything iPhone and we're 10 minutes away from the keynote. Some media still haven't found their seats, and we're lucky enough to get a rather premium seat at the lower deck.


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