Apple is hyping the release of its new iPhones.
On Tuesday of this week, Apple will hold a launch event where it will reveal its new iPhone line-up. Usually, Apple announces its new iPhones in September, and they go on sale shortly afterwards. This year, Apple released its new Apple Watches in September and pushed the iPhone announcement to October. The delay is due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has disrupted electronics manufacturing and forced most Apple employees to work from home.
Still, Apple is promoting this year’s iPhone launch as the most significant ever. It is expected to include the first major exterior redesign since 2017, when Apple released the iPhone X with facial recognition capabilities. This year’s models will feature iPad-like edges with flatter sides, compared with the gently curving sides of current iPhone models.
Apple is also expected to release four separate iPhones of different screen sizes and prices -- a much wider range of devices than in the past. At least some new iPhones will support 5G cellular networks, which promise faster download times, although the networks aren’t fully built out yet in the U.S., which could prove problematic.
The last time Apple made such big changes to the iPhone was 2014, when the iPhone 6 came out with bigger screens and two different sizes. That prompted a major upgrade cycle -- a so-called “super-cycle” -- with over 231 million iPhones sold in the next four quarters.
This year’s changes have investors predicting a big upgrade cycle that will make Apple an even more valuable company going forward. Morgan Stanley, for example, is forecasting Apple to ship about 220 million iPhones in fiscal 2021, which would be up 22% year-over-year.
Tech Insider
