Bigger, pricier iPhone unveiled

Apple also showed off cheaper model, called the iPhone XR, made of aluminium and with a sizeable screen

Apple unveiled three new iPhones yesterday, including its biggest and most expensive model yet, as the company seeks to widen the product’s appeal amid slowing sales.

The new iPhones will be available for pre-order in the UAE from tomorrow, and will hit UAE stores from September 21.

CEO Tim Cook showed off the Apple XS ($999 or Dh3,668), which has a bigger screen than the one on last year’s dramatically designed model, the iPhone X. A bigger version will be called the iPhone XS Max ($1,099), which looks to be about the size of the iPhone 8 Plus, though the screen size is much bigger.

As with the iPhone X, the new phone has a screen that runs from edge to edge, an effort to maximise the display without making the phone too awkward to hold. The screen needs no backlight, so black would appear as truly black rather than simply dark. This even-bigger iPhone represents Apple’s attempt to feed consumers’ appetite for increasingly larger screens as they rely on smartphones to watch and record video, as well as take photos wherever they are. The iPhone X also got rid of the home button to make room for more screen and introduced facial-recognition technology to unlock the device.

By making more expensive iPhones, Apple has been able to boost its profits despite waning demand as people upgrade phones less frequently. iPhones fetched an average price of $724 (Dh2,658) during the April-June period, a nearly 20 per cent increase from a year earlier.

Apple also showed off a

Apple also announced updates that push its Watch further into medical device territory. It has a larger screen and a built-in heart sensor.

cheaper iPhone, called the iPhone XR ($749). It is made of aluminium, and smaller than the iPhone 8 Plus in physical size, but has a bigger screen.

Worldwide smartphone sales grew just 2 per cent during that period, according to the research firm Gartner Inc. Samsung remained in the lead.

Watch can detect fall

Apple also announced updates that push its Apple Watch further into medical device territory. It has a larger screen and a built-in heart sensor that the company said can detect irregular heart rates and perform an electrocardiogram. The latter feature has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration, the company said.

These features will be available to US customers later this year, but Apple did not say when it would make it to the rest of the world.

Apple says the Series 4 Apple Watch will also be able to detect when someone falls — and can tell the difference between a trip and a fall. If it detects a fall and the user doesn’t respond in a minute, it’ll automatically call for help.