Apple Watches buzz around largest iPhone Apple now supports dual-SIM in China
APPLE Inc introduced its largest-ever iPhone and a watch that detects heart problems on Wednesday in an attempt to get customers to upgrade to more expensive devices in the face of stagnant global demand for smartphones.
The relatively small changes to its lineup, following last year’s overhauled iPhone X, were widely expected by investors. The strategy has been successful, helping Apple’s stock to rise more than 30 percent this year and making it the first publicly traded US company to hit a market value above US$1 trillion.
Apple’s new iPhone XS, pronounced “ten S,” has a 5.8-inch screen, and will be sold at a starting price of US$999. The XS Max, the largest iPhone to date and one of the biggest on the market, has a 6.5-inch screen, and will start selling at US$1,099.
“They have finally added a larger-screen phone so that they can directly compete with the Galaxy Note 9 products,” Gartner analyst Annette Zimmermann said at the event at Apple’s Silicon Valley headquarters, referring to rival Samsung Electronics which has led the trend toward big-screen phones.
“The larger screen will be very important in China to turn around the trend there, because they have lost some share in the last few years, partly because of screen size,” she added.
The iPhone XS Max’s display size is 26 percent larger than the previous largest iPhone display, marking it the largest increase in screen size since 2014, wrote analyst Gene Munster of Loup Ventures in a note.
Apple also introduced a lowercost 6.1-inch iPhone XR made of aluminum, at a starting price of US$749.
This year’s three phones are all more expensive than last year’s models.
With two of them starting at US$999 or higher in the United States, Apple appears to be taking advantage of a strong US economy, low unemployment, and rising household wealth.
Looking for ways to lessen reliance on phones, which represent more than 60 percent its revenue, Apple opened its event by announcing the new Apple Watch Series 4 with edge-to-edge display, like its latest phones, and they are more than 30 percent bigger than displays on current models.
It is positioning the new watch as a more comprehensive health device, able to take an electrocardiogram to detect an irregular heartbeat and start an emergency call automatically if it detects a user falling down, potentially appealing to older customers.
The US Food and Drug Administration said it worked with Apple to develop apps for the Apple Watch and has been taking steps to ease the regulatory pathway for companies seeking to create digital health care products.
As many as 6.1 million Americans have atrial fibrillation, a heart disease involving irregular heart rhythm for which the Watch could offer an early warning. That number is expected to double by 2050, according to the American Heart Association.
“This does have a lot of potential for patients,” said Dr Michael Valentine, president of the American College of Cardiology and a cardiologist at Central Health in Lynchburg, Virginia. “Clinicians face patients every day with palpitations, rapid heart rates, and other symptoms,” and the doctors want a more portable monitoring and recording system.
Health care technology analyst Ross Muken at Evercore said many companies were developing monitoring devices. “This update really establishes the company’s increasing efforts to push the watch as a serious medical device,” he said of Apple.
Apple’s event was held at the Steve Jobs Theater in its new circular headquarters in Cupertino, California. Executives made no mention of a wireless charging mat, or content deals for Apple TV, as some industry analysts had expected.
“We all knew this was going to be a transitional but not transformational phone update,” said Trip Miller, managing partner at hedge fund Gullane Capital, which owns Apple shares. APPLE’S latest iPhone XS and the larger iPhone XS Max will support dual-SIM cards in China for the first time, Shanghai Daily learned yesterday.
With dual-SIM (subscriber identity module) cards, users can reserve one line for business and another for personal use on one phone. This feature is popular with travelers who fly frequently on business.
China is the world’s biggest market for dual-SIM smartphones with over 90 million units in the second quarter, said researcher Canalys. Nearly 70 percent of the 340 million smartphones sold globally in the second quarter feature dual-SIM technology.
“Dual-SIM is definitely very attractive to the Chinese users,” said Jia Mo, a Canalys analyst based in Shanghai.
It’s already a regular or must-have feature in China, according to industry officials.
China Mobile has also launched a “virtual number” service to meet demand for dual-SIM cards. But the virtual number, which charges users 5 yuan (74 US cents), only supports calls and short message without data traffic.
Apple may need to convince would-be upgraders or Android users that the high prices it charges for the latest iPhones are worth paying, said Jia,
Apple charges above US$1,000 for the models while Huawei’s flagship P20 Pro model starts at 4,699 yuan (US$687).