Apple raises bar, prices with iPhone X
10 years on, firm redefining smartphone era
CUPERTINO, Calif. — The crowd at Apple’s new “spaceship” headquarters saw new smartphones — including a premium version priced at $999 — as the company commemorated its 10th anniversary of the iPhone.
The bar is very high for Apple. Most of its revenue is generated through the smartphone. Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, promised that the company’s new phones would make a splash by defining the future of the smartphone.
About midway through Apple’s event, Apple’s head of marketing Philip Schiller showed off the upgrades to the main iPhone line. Clad in an aluminum and glass skin that comes in black, gray and gold, the new devices are speedier, with sharper screens and better battery efficiency. The phones also will accommodate wireless charging.
The new smartphones have revamped cameras that will use a feature called “portrait lighting” that will automatically optimize the lighting in your photos.
Schiller took some time to tout the smartphones’ ability to do more in augmented reality — which is expected to be a key area of growth for video games and other software apps. An app from Major League Baseball, for example, will display live stats over players when users look at the field through their iPhone screens.
Apple is bumping up the base storage of an iPhone 8 to 64 GB at a price of $699. The larger iPhone 8 Plus will start at $799. Both will be available for order Friday and ship on Sept. 22.
After the iPhone 8 presentation, Cook retook the stage to offer, in Jobs’s iconic words, “one more thing” — the iPhone X.
The phone, he said, was the “biggest leap since the original iPhone.” (The company is pronouncing it the iPhone 10).
The iPhone X will start at $999 — considerably more than previous models. It will be available for pre-order on Oct. 27th, and ship on Nov. 3.
The iPhone X has an advanced array of cameras for facial recognition, which allows the phone to become unlocked just by looking at it.
The new high-end smartphone has a 5.8 inch display that covers the entire surface of the phone. Unlike its cheaper sibling, the iPhone X comes in gray and silver and sports a “super” retina display.