iPhone 13 presented: Apple relies on cameras and speed

The Californian manufacturer is giving its new generation iPhones faster chips and better cameras. There are hardly any surprises with Apple devices. Experts still expect success.

The new iPhones should be “super-fast and energy-efficient”. With the chip called A15 Bionic, which was developed in-house, and more 5G bands, Apple relies fully on the speed of devices and networking. The group announced that it was the most powerful processor system in a smartphone. Every new generation of iPhone is extremely important to Apple. Because the iPhone is by far the company’s most important product – and also the basis for business with other devices.

With new high-performance cameras, the Californians are also keeping an eye on the cinema industry and promise new functions for film-ready recordings. The devices have a “cinematic” video mode in which the software automatically focuses on different levels in the image depending on what is happening in front of the camera. If, for example, the person in the foreground turns backwards, the lens is focused on the background towards which they are looking.

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the product range is “the largest further development of the camera system to date”. “Camera performance has become the number one battleground for premium smartphones, and it’s no surprise Apple has stepped up its stakes in the game and added triple optical zoom, macro photography and video features like cinema mode to the top-end iPhones,” said Ben Wood, chief analyst at the market research company CCS Insight, the “Financial Times”.

Appearance remains the same

Externally, however, the iPhone 13 presented yesterday evening changed little. It retains the current generation design with angular edges. The most noticeable 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.

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 this had been the case for some time. Apple only wants to get the power-hungry 120 Hertz when they are needed for particularly dynamic scenes.

With better cameras and correspondingly larger files, the phones also get more memory. In the basic version, the iPhone 13 now has at least 128 gigabytes on board, the Pro model up to 1 terabyte. There is also an iPhone 13 mini – while at times it was speculated that Apple would do away with the smaller model because sales remained below expectations.

Customers with older devices as the target group

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. But he reckons that demand will remain high thanks to the premiums for old devices, among other things.

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 improved features would make it “an attractive product for the more than 900 million iPhone users who have not bought the iPhone 12”.

Last year, Apple changed a lot of the device with the iPhone 12 – the smartphone received a new design and now supports super-fast 5G data transmission. “I don’t think iPhone 12 users need an upgrade,” wrote Forrester analyst Thomas Husson. For the majority of users who have older devices, the jump to 5G with the iPhone 13 or the now cheaper iPhone 12 models is a leap forward. According to a survey by investment bank Baird, 45 percent of Apple users in the US have a device that is two years or older. They are therefore considered to be potential upgrade customers.

Share of iPhone sales is falling

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 above $ 800. The number of devices sold rose by a good third in the first half of the year.

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 represent up to two thirds of the Group’s business. Most recently, however, its share of sales fell below 50 percent, among other things because Mac computers and iPad tablets also became significantly more popular during the corona pandemic. Apple is now also renewing the iPad and the smaller iPad mini.

Apple Watch retains its characteristic shape

The Apple Watch computer watch is now getting a slightly larger display in the new generation Series 7 presented. Since the frame around the screen has been made thinner, the case is only a little larger than the previous model. With more space, it is now possible for the first time to type on a small keyboard on the display, for example.

Prior to the online event, which more than two million people saw live on Tuesday, 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 the watch retains its characteristic shape. Neither have reports been confirmed that the new iPhone could be used to set up a satellite connection in an emergency.

To expand the services business, Apple is introducing its Fitness + training subscription in other countries – including Germany soon. Investors reacted with little enthusiasm to the presentation of the group’s innovations. Apple shares lost about 1.5 percent on the US stock exchanges.