Apple is relying on better cameras and faster chips for its new iPhones. The iPhone 13 presented on Tuesday, which will be important in the upcoming Christmas business, retains the design of the current generation with angular edges. The most noticeable external change, besides new colors, is that the gap at the top of the screen for cameras and sensors for face recognition has been reduced by 20 percent.
But there are some innovations inside. The iPhones are powered by a new chip developed in-house, the A15 Bionic. Apple itself speaks of the most powerful processor system in a smartphone. The computing power is used, among other things, to improve the night recordings of the upgraded cameras. There is also a “cinematic” video mode on the new devices, in which the software automatically focuses on different levels in the image depending on what is happening. For example, if the person in the foreground turns backwards, the lens is focused on the background in the direction of which they are looking. Apple was convinced that such functions could also change the film business.
The displays have also been overhauled to match. Among other things, the expensive iPhone Pro now also supports – like various competitor smartphones – refresh rates of up to 120 Hertz. Arch-rival Samsung could not resist a swipe and pointed out in a tweet that its own devices had been able to do this for some time. At the same time, Apple only wants to get the power-hungry 120 Hertz when it is needed for particularly dynamic scenes.
With better cameras and larger files, the phones get more memory. In the basic version, the iPhone 13 now has at least 128 gigabytes of memory, the Pro model up to 1 terabyte. There is also an iPhone 13 mini – at times it was speculated that Apple would do away with the smaller model because sales fell short of expectations.
Every new generation of iPhone is extremely important to Apple. The smartphone is by far the Group’s most important product – and also the basis for business with other devices such as the Apple Watch computer clock or AirPods earphones. Industry analysts saw no problems for Apple after introducing the new models. “From our point of view, there were no revolutionary announcements,” said analyst Harsh Kumar of the investment bank Papier Sandler. However, he expects that demand will remain high thanks to the premiums for old devices, among other things.
Apple is also renewing the iPad and the iPad Mini
Last year, Apple took a big step with the iPhone 12 with a new design and support for fast 5G wireless data transmission. The new generation is not a significant update compared to last year’s iPhone, wrote analyst Amit Daryanani of the finance company Evercore. But the enhanced features “will make it an attractive product to the 900 million plus iPhone users who did not purchase the iPhone 12”.
While more than 80 percent of the smartphones sold worldwide run on the Google system Android, Apple has fought for a lucrative place in the rest of the market. Francisco Jeronimo from the analysis company IDC pointed out that Apple, with the iPhone, has a market share of a good 70 percent in premium smartphones priced at over $ 800 – and the number of devices sold in the first half of the year rose by a good third.
Most iPhones are traditionally sold in the Christmas quarter – and Apple has recently ousted market leader Samsung again and again from first place. The iPhone used to bring in up to two thirds of the company’s business. Most recently, however, its share of sales fell below 50 percent, among other things because Mac computers and iPad tablets became significantly more popular during the corona pandemic.
The Apple Watch gets a bigger display
Apple is now also renewing the iPad and the smaller iPad mini. The Apple Watch computer watch is getting a slightly larger display in the new Series 7 generation presented on Tuesday. Since the frame around the screen has been made thinner, the case is only a little larger than the previous model. With more space, Apple can now, for the first time, type on a small keyboard on the display.
Before the presentation, it was speculated that Apple wanted to radically change the design of the computer clock. It was said that it should be more angular instead of the previously rounded edges. But while the display actually got bigger, the watch kept its characteristic shape. To expand the services business, Apple is introducing its Fitness + training subscription in other countries – including Germany soon.