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| IPhone 7 and Waterproof Watches: Live Analysis From Apple’s Event | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| SAN FRANCISCO — Apple unveiled new iPhones at an event on Wednesday, as it has done every September for the last few years. | |
| The event, held in San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, is the company’s most important annual outing. Even as the iPhone remains the outsize producer of Apple’s revenue and profit, sales of the smartphone have recently been declining. So more than ever, the onus is on Apple to keep up excitement for the gadget. | |
| What’s different this time is that the rumormongers have been buzzing about something that the new iPhones will lack, rather than a flashy new feature. The item that is supposed to disappear is the traditional headphone jack, with Apple expected to turn people toward wireless headphones instead. | What’s different this time is that the rumormongers have been buzzing about something that the new iPhones will lack, rather than a flashy new feature. The item that is supposed to disappear is the traditional headphone jack, with Apple expected to turn people toward wireless headphones instead. |
| Brian X. Chen, Farhad Manjoo and Katie Benner are at the event to provide live analysis of what you need to know about the announcements, not what you don’t. | Brian X. Chen, Farhad Manjoo and Katie Benner are at the event to provide live analysis of what you need to know about the announcements, not what you don’t. |
| Here’s what Apple has announced so far: | Here’s what Apple has announced so far: |
| ■ New iPhones, called the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. | |
| ■ The new iPhones have a revised home button with force sensitivity, which will vibrate to give feedback. | |
| ■ The iPhones are water-resistant. | |
| ■ The Plus model of the new iPhone includes a dual-lens camera to take professional-grade photos. | |
| ■ An update on how Apple Music is performing. | |
| ■ Tweaks to its iWork suite of productivity apps. | |
| ■ Pokémon Go is available for Apple Watch | ■ Pokémon Go is available for Apple Watch |
| ■ A new Apple Watch, called Apple Watch Series 2, which includes GPS. | |
| Here’s what else we expect from the event: | Here’s what else we expect from the event: |
| ■ The removal of the iPhone’s headphone jack. | |
| Farhad: This is a tricky event, because from all that we know of the new iPhone, there isn’t much new to it. It has the same design as last year’s (and the one the year before) and the major new thing is … a missing headphone jack. So what I’ll be watching for is Apple’s reality distortion field: How will Apple C.E.O. Tim Cook and friends convince us that taking away a feature is really an advance for the iPhone? | |
| Katie: For the past few quarters, Apple has emphasized that services and software will drive growth as iPhone revenue ebbs. At Wednesday’s event, Mr. Cook underlined that. He kicked off the morning with updates on two of the company’s most important software and services divisions — Apple Music and the App Store. | Katie: For the past few quarters, Apple has emphasized that services and software will drive growth as iPhone revenue ebbs. At Wednesday’s event, Mr. Cook underlined that. He kicked off the morning with updates on two of the company’s most important software and services divisions — Apple Music and the App Store. |
| “We’ve always had a deep love for music,” Mr. Cook said. “It inspires us, and it’s a key part of our product experience.” | “We’ve always had a deep love for music,” Mr. Cook said. “It inspires us, and it’s a key part of our product experience.” |
| Mr. Cook said the company had 17 million subscribers after about a year for Apple Music and added that the music service would be the “premier destination for exclusive music,” nodding to the idea that the company will use its huge war chest to lock up deals with artists. | Mr. Cook said the company had 17 million subscribers after about a year for Apple Music and added that the music service would be the “premier destination for exclusive music,” nodding to the idea that the company will use its huge war chest to lock up deals with artists. |
| Brian: In another nod to software, Mr. Cook said Super Mario is coming to the App Store. Nintendo, the struggling video game company, long refused to offer its games and franchise characters on mobile devices, but the company recently did a 180, with Pokémon Go as a recent example. The change seems more beneficial to Nintendo than to Apple. Pokémon Go was a huge success, at least initially, proving that app stores are a viable revenue stream for Nintendo beyond its consoles. | Brian: In another nod to software, Mr. Cook said Super Mario is coming to the App Store. Nintendo, the struggling video game company, long refused to offer its games and franchise characters on mobile devices, but the company recently did a 180, with Pokémon Go as a recent example. The change seems more beneficial to Nintendo than to Apple. Pokémon Go was a huge success, at least initially, proving that app stores are a viable revenue stream for Nintendo beyond its consoles. |
| Apple also announced a new version of iWork, its suite of productivity apps that rival Microsoft Office and Google’s productivity apps. The tweaked version of iWork will include real-time collaboration, meaning multiple people can work on documents and presentation slides at the same time. It’s good that these changes are coming to iWork, but Microsoft and Google have been offering real-time collaboration tools for years already. | Apple also announced a new version of iWork, its suite of productivity apps that rival Microsoft Office and Google’s productivity apps. The tweaked version of iWork will include real-time collaboration, meaning multiple people can work on documents and presentation slides at the same time. It’s good that these changes are coming to iWork, but Microsoft and Google have been offering real-time collaboration tools for years already. |
| Farhad: The education market has been important to Apple for decades, and for the last few years it has pushed the iPad as the perfect school computer. It is again doing so today, with those tweaks to its iWork software aimed at schools. | Farhad: The education market has been important to Apple for decades, and for the last few years it has pushed the iPad as the perfect school computer. It is again doing so today, with those tweaks to its iWork software aimed at schools. |
| But Apple has lately faced more competition from rivals, especially Google, whose cheap and simple Chromebook has become one of the most-used machines at schools. For both companies — and lately for other tech rivals, including Amazon — the education market functions as a gateway. Get them early, win them for life. | But Apple has lately faced more competition from rivals, especially Google, whose cheap and simple Chromebook has become one of the most-used machines at schools. For both companies — and lately for other tech rivals, including Amazon — the education market functions as a gateway. Get them early, win them for life. |
| Brian: The new Apple Watch is called Apple Watch Series 2. It emphasizes fitness and health, with Apple showing a video of runners, gymnasts and swimmers using the watch. One major criticism of Apple Watch was that it did a bit of everything and did not have any strengths. Apple is trying to beef up the fitness capabilities, similar to Fitbit. The new version is water-resistant up to 50 meters (164 feet). It also includes GPS for tracking runs. The watch is faster than the previous version. | |
| Katie: Whether Apple Watch has been successful or not has largely been a mystery. Apple doesn’t break out Watch revenue in its earnings. But Mr. Cook pulled back the curtain a little when he revealed that Apple is now the No. 2 global watch brand, measured by revenue, behind Rolex. The Apple Watch is also the top-selling smartwatch, even though a killer app has yet to emerge for the watch. The company is hoping to change that with the introduction of a Pokémon Go app for the watch. | Katie: Whether Apple Watch has been successful or not has largely been a mystery. Apple doesn’t break out Watch revenue in its earnings. But Mr. Cook pulled back the curtain a little when he revealed that Apple is now the No. 2 global watch brand, measured by revenue, behind Rolex. The Apple Watch is also the top-selling smartwatch, even though a killer app has yet to emerge for the watch. The company is hoping to change that with the introduction of a Pokémon Go app for the watch. |
| Brian: It’s important to note that Apple Watch sales don’t appear to be growing much. IDC, the research firm, estimates that Apple Watch market share in the wearables market shrank 56.7 percent last quarter compared to the same period last year. That’s largely because consumers have probably been waiting for a new version to come out before deciding whether to buy a watch. It’s definitely still a nascent device. | |
| Farhad: This is the first Apple event in a few years that isn’t likely to feature any redesigned hardware. The new iPhone and Apple Watch will look almost identical to last year’s models. But there is a new ceramic finish for the Watch that comes closest to some new design. | |
| The gleaming white finish is in some ways a return to the past for Apple. (Remember all those white computers from the early 2000s?) But beyond that, it’s always interesting when Apple discovers a new material for use in its devices. You usually notice some new process or material start in one product and then wend its way throughout the company’s lineup over a few years’ time. In other words, three years from now, we may have all-white, ceramic phones. A man can dream, anyway. | |
| Brian: For now, my advice to consumers: I see no compelling reason for people with Version One of the device to upgrade unless they are fitness buffs. | |
| The addition of GPS gives the Apple Watch a slight edge against Fitbit’s Blaze, a comparable smartwatch that lacks GPS. But until we get to try the software, it’s tough to tell how the new Apple Watch’s fitness capabilities will compare to accessories from Fitbit. Fitbit’s products are popular partly because the apps are so well designed for monitoring health statistics, including footsteps, calories and weight. So GPS isn’t necessarily the magic bullet. | |
| Farhad: The reality distortion is in force. In true Apple fashion, we got a deep-dive video into the development process for the iPhone 7, with not even a nod to the fact that the phone looks nearly identical to the one Apple released last year and the one the year before. Because it has a new color and a new Apple logo, Apple insists it’s “a beautiful new design.” | |
| I’m sure there are minor differences — the antenna band is different — but it seems too rich to call it a new design. Too rich, except for Apple. |