Apple Announces New Rectangles
Apple unveiled not one but two new rectangles at their big spring event today in San Francisco. Though, it’s debatable if one of those rectangles, the iPhone SE, is actually new.
That’s because it’s the exact same phone as the old iPhone 5S, but with a moderate processor and camera upgrade to bring it up to spec with the iPhone 6S. The new SE comes in at a lovely $399 for an unlocked phone. One has to wonder, looking at the legacy, antenna-on-the-outside design, if Apple didn’t just scrounge together all the old unsold 5S handsets and use its new robot Liam to swap out the camera and processor. We all heard a four-inch phone was coming back, and small-handed users rejoiced. But we were hoping they would switch to the smooth body styling introduced in the iPhone 6 — something more like the latest iPod Touch. Click on that link. Aren’t those beautiful? Isn’t that the four-inch phone you want? You got to give Apple credit for going after emerging markets and lowering the price, but let’s not pretend this is a new phone. That said, it’s still a slick little machine. Oh, and Wi-Fi calling.
Apple also introduced a new member to the iPhone Pro lineup, the “9.7-inch iPad Pro.” Looks like someone in marketing forgot to give this thing a name. We’ll unfortunately have to call this the “9.7-inch iPad Pro” for the indefinite future. If you liked iPads before, wait until you get a load of this — comes with support for Apple Pencil the Smart Keyboard.
“iPad Pro is a new generation of iPad that is indispensable and immersive, enabling people to be more productive and more creative. It’s incredibly fast, extremely portable, and completely natural to use with your fingers, Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard. And now it comes in two sizes,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The 9.7-inch iPad Pro has a new Retina display with True Tone technology, four-speaker audio system, blazing fast A9X chip, 12-megapixel iSight camera, 5-megapixel FaceTime HD camera, faster wireless, and support for Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard. It is the ultimate upgrade for existing iPad users and replacement for PC users.”
Got all that?
The biggest bombshell of the day was new, get this, new Apple Watch Bands. BOOM! They also dropped the opening price of Apple Watch from $349 to $299, so you can afford one of those new bands.
What’s all this mean in the grand scheme of things? Nothing new. Apple still makes the best rectangles on the planet. Have fun.
Contact Appstem if you still have any Apple questions.
