Apple has announced several new products, including its new slimmer iPhone “Air” model with a “high-density battery” and a brand new processor, as well as an iPhone 17, the latest upgrade to its flagship smartphone.
The tech giant, based in Cupertino, California in the US, unveiled the iPhone Air model as the star of the annual product launch event on Tuesday, with CEO Tim Cook calling it a “game-changer”.
Apple said the model is its most durable iPhone yet, and it is priced starting at $999.
The company said the base model iPhone 17 will have a brighter, more scratch-resistant screen. It also said the device will feature a new A19 processor chip, which will be made with three-nanometre (3nm) chipmaking technology and have improved capabilities for on-device artificial intelligence features.
Apple said the iPhone 17 will also have a better front-facing camera with a differently shaped sensor to make horizontal selfies look better.
A 256-gigabyte version of the iPhone 17 base model will start at $799, the same as the previous iPhone 16 model with half the storage space. The iPhone 17 Pro will start at $1,099 for a 256-gigabyte model, the same as the previous year's model with the same storage size, but without the option of a smaller-capacity phone at a lower $999 like the iPhone 16 Pro.
AirPods and watch
The company also introduced a new version of its AirPods Pro wireless headphones and a blood pressure monitor in its latest Apple Watch.
The new AirPods Pro 3 will feature live translation of languages. Apple also said that if both people in a conversation are wearing the new AirPods Pro 3, the earbuds will translate conversations in near real time. Apple said the new AirPods will be priced at $249, the same as the previous generation, and will become available on September 19.
The blood pressure monitor feature is pending regulatory approval, Apple said. The watch will not detect every case of high blood pressure, but the company said it expects the feature to notify one million people and will make it available in 150 countries.
Apple did not raise the price on watch models, either. New versions of the SE will cost $249, the Series 11 will cost $399, and the larger Ultra model will start at $799, as all their predecessors did.
The iPhone Air will go head-to-head against Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S25 Edge, and analysts told Reuters news agency that it could be a stepping stone towards competing with Samsung’s folding phones, which are in their seventh generation.
A foldable phone is important for Apple to appeal to customers in China, where consumers like foldables and the company has been losing market share.
“This new device will bring a sense of newness to the iPhone, which has remained the same for too long,” said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore. He said the “new and much-improved iPhone lineup looks impressive, which puts [Apple] in a strong position to cater for different segments”.
Tariff hit
The event comes in the midst of a global trade reordering sparked by United States President Donald Trump’s trade policies, with Apple estimating that tariffs will cost it more than $1bn in the current fiscal quarter.
Analysts are watching closely to see whether the company will increase the price of iPhones, or seek alternative routes to making up for tariff costs such as keeping the prices of base iPhone models steady while increasing the cost of versions with more storage.
The new iPhones are expected to arrive without significant upgrades to Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant, which Apple has pushed off until next year. In the meantime, analysts are tracking whether Apple, which has tapped ChatGPT creator OpenAI as a partner to power certain artificial intelligence features in its operating systems, will add more AI partnerships to its lineup before the arrival of a revamped Siri.
Source: Al Jazeera
Bd-pratidin English/ ANI
