New Delhi:
American tech giant Apple in line with its customary style of breaking through cutting edge technology is expected to unveil a new iPhone and maybe even a second-generation smart watch at a glittering event in San Francisco on 7th September.
The new iPhone 7 model shall be equipped with better processing speeds, higher resolution cameras and improved software while turning to user-friendly ports in place of the jacks for plugging in wired headphones.
The new iPhones will be water-resistant. Both iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 plus will be water-proof with IPX7 rating.
The event may witness the wireless headphones being showcased by Beats, an entity which Apple acquired two years back at a $3bn deal.
Apple’s has envisaged a unique way of marketing its latest iPhone models to a niche audience by showcasing first glimpse of their latest products at well-timed events that coincide with the year-end holiday shopping season.
In July, the company reached a path-breaking milestone by announcing the sale of its billionth iPhone.The company in recent years has faced intense competition from fellow competitors and a drop in their iPhone sales in the second quarter of this year is testimony to the same.
South Korean consumer electronics giant LG is set to take center stage at San Francisco before Apple as they would showcase a new premium V20 smartphone the evening before the Apple hogs the limelight. The V20 will be the first phone to run on the new Nougat version of Google-backed Android operating software.
Meanwhile, leading smartphone maker Samsung has suffered a huge dent to its reputation after there were some serious technical glitches found in its batteries which caused some Galaxy Note 7 “phablets” to explode while charging. The Korean giant has immediately called back these faulty products to avoid any further ramifications.
The event shall also be used as a platform by California-based Apple to showcase updates to other products, such as its smartwatch and laptop computers. There was a strong grapevine in the market regarding the redundancy of the Apple Watch 2 hardware, which has not been updated since it debuted in April of last year.
The event on Wednesday comes at a time when Apple is pitched against the European Union in a financial cum legal battle over a multi-billion-dollar bill. This comes in the backdrop of a financial charges made by the European Union which hold the firm guilty of evading tax liabilities in Ireland due to favorable terms granted to the tech giant courtesy illegal state aid.
Financial analyst around the world is of the firm view that the cash rich Apple was in a strong liquid position to pay off a huge financial obligation of 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion). According to its most recent earnings report, Apple had $231.5 billion in cash plus marketable securities at the end of June.
Of that total, $214.8 billion, or 93 percent, was said to be outside the United States, Apple’s chief financial officer Luca Maestri said on an earnings call.
Apple has certainly been found wanting in its constant endeavour to enrich its customers with its latest innovation and advancements to its existing product line, a forte of the entity under the able leadership of its late co-founder Steve Jobs. The “one more thing” credo which took the company places under aegis Steve jobs would have to be imbibed under the leadership of Tim Cook.
Apple iPhones for long have been the cash cow for the company in its marketing gambit and financial robustness, while reported investments in self-driving cars and virtual reality are still in its formative stage of testing.
With iPhone sales and profits witnessing a drop, Apple highlighted growth in sales of apps, music and cloud services in its latest financial presentation. To keep up with the ever increasing intense competition, Apple is foraying into new areas such as Apple TV and streaming music, which could yield stable cash flows.
The good news is that we can expect the company to launch device in India before Diwali. This means you have to re-budget your Diwali expenses.
