Apple is giving its new iPhones several innovations before the all-important Christmas season – but it’s serving up hefty price increases to European buyers with the strong dollar.
Innovations include the ability to send emergency messages via satellite and an always-on display on the more expensive Pro version of the iPhone 14. Apple is expanding its range of computer watches with a larger and more robust Apple Watch Ultra, which above all intended for extreme athletes and adventurers.
Technical challenge
Emergency satellite communications can save lives when people in areas without cell phone coverage are at risk. At the moment, this requires special phones with larger antennas. Apple, on the other hand, integrated an in-house system for connecting to satellites into the conventional housing sizes of the iPhone 14.
However, the connection remains a technical challenge, as the group admitted at the presentation on Wednesday. The iPhone must be aimed directly at the satellite, and the transmission can take a few seconds or several minutes. Since the satellites are not visible to the naked eye, users get help aligning the devices with an on-screen graphic. The feature will initially only be available in the US and Canada and will remain free for iPhone 14 buyers for the first two years.
In a radical step, the US versions of the iPhone 14 will not have a slot for a physical SIM card at all, but will rely entirely on a reprogrammable eSIM.
Better pictures in bad light
With the more expensive Pro models of the iPhone 14, the display can stay on all the time. For example, this creates new possibilities for applications on the home screen that display information in real time – such as live scores at sporting events. The Pro devices also get a smaller display cut-out for the selfie camera and face recognition, as well as a 48-megapixel sensor in the new camera system, which, among other things, should ensure better pictures in difficult lighting conditions.
All this has its price: across the board, the new devices are becoming more expensive than their predecessors. The basic model of the iPhone 14 costs 999 euros compared to 899 euros for the iPhone 13. Prices for the iPhone 14 Pro now start at 1299 euros instead of the previous 1149 euros. The larger Pro Max is now at least 1449 euros instead of the previous 1249 euros. And the most expensive iPhone, the Pro Max with one terabyte of storage, now costs 2099 euros – 250 euros more than the iPhone 13. In the USA, however, analysts were somewhat surprised that prices for the domestic market remained unchanged.
The iPhone is by far Apple’s most important product. Sales of the device bring in around half of the group’s revenues. It also plays a key role in sales of other tech like watches and earphones, and services like Apple Music.
Global smartphone sales have shrunk in recent months due to economic concerns and higher inflation, among other things. But the two largest providers, Samsung and Apple, were able to detach themselves from this development and sell more phones.
Apple extended its lead, especially in more expensive smartphones. In the first half of the year, iPhones accounted for around two-thirds of computer cell phones sold at a price of more than $600, as calculated by analysis company Canalys. And the iPhone 13 was the best-selling smartphone model. Overall, Apple increased iPhone sales in the first half of the year by 8 percent to 106 million devices, giving it a market share of 18 percent, the highest in years.
Watch Ultra with cellular connection
A central question for many market observers is how robust this demand will remain if disposable income shrinks due to rising energy costs, among other things. So far, Apple’s money machine has been running at full speed – and the group traditionally does its best business in the Christmas quarter. In the quarter ended 2021, Apple posted record sales of $123.9 billion and profit of $34.6 billion. Analyst Tony Sacconaghi from the finance firm Bernstein believes that the average iPhone selling price might increase by 10 to 15 percent. And the analysis company Global Data assumes that Apple has offered users enough incentives to upgrade with the innovations.
The Apple Watch Ultra is said to run for 36 hours without charging thanks to a larger battery – and up to 60 hours with activated power saving settings. All versions of the watch come with a built-in cellular connection by default. An additional large button should also be easy to operate with gloves, which helps in winter or when diving, for example.
The conventional new Apple Watch 8 gets two sensors that measure body temperature. New motion sensors can detect car accidents so the watch can automatically alert emergency services. The watch recognizes, among other things, a frontal or side impact as well as a rollover. It also evaluates the ambient noise. Apple’s watches with a mobile chip will also support roaming for the first time. Until now, without a connected iPhone, connectivity was limited to national borders.
The competition is growing
With the new Airpods Pro, Apple is updating the more expensive model of wireless earbuds that was introduced in 2019. The new features include twice as good a suppression of ambient noise, according to Apple, and the ability to change the volume with swiping movements on the earphones.
With its various Airpods, Apple is the clear number one in the wireless earphone business, despite growing competition. According to Canalys calculations, Apple and its in-house brand Beats sold 17.5 million devices in the last quarter alone and achieved a market share of almost 28 percent. The pursuers are therefore far behind: Samsung comes in second place with the hi-fi subsidiary Harman and well-known brands such as JBL with 5.8 million earphones and a good 9 percent market share.
© dpa/Andrej Sokolow, dpa – German Press Agency 2022
