Tim Cook dinner, chief government officer of Apple Inc., throughout the first day of in-store gross sales of Apple’s newest merchandise at Apple’s Fifth Avenue retailer in New York, US, on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
Victor J. Blue | Bloomberg | Getty Photographs
Apple introduced a new iPhone model on Wednesday that’s priced decrease than its most important iPhone fashions, which often come out in September.
The brand new iPhone is known as iPhone 16e, and it’ll retail for $599 when it goes on sale later this month.
The brand new iPhone 16e would not have a house button and fingerprint sensor, as a substitute, it makes use of Apple’s FaceID scanner and trendy design together with a sensor notch on the prime of the display. It makes use of Apple’s A18 chip, which can also be utilized in the principle iPhone 16 fashions. The up to date processor signifies that the iPhone 16e can run all the identical apps and video games that transfer costly iPhones can run. It is available in black and white.
The telephone additionally consists of Apple’s first mobile modem, which it calls C1. iPhones have used Qualcomm modems for the previous few years. It additionally has a single digital camera lens, versus as many as three on essentially the most superior iPhones.
Apple is releasing a brand new low-cost iPhone as gross sales have been blended in latest quarters and Apple seeks development for its most necessary product class. For the December quarter, Apple’s general iPhone gross sales had been down 1% on an annual foundation. Apple nonetheless bought over $69 billion of telephones within the interval.
Low-end iPhones are necessary to Apple because it will get new clients into their ecosystem, and the brand new machine helps Apple Intelligence, making it Apple’s least costly new telephone that may entry options like picture era and notification summaries.
Apple’s present fashions are the iPhone 16, which begins at $799, and the iPhone 16 Professional, which begins at $999. Earlier than Tuesday’s launch, solely the iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 Professional fashions had been the one telephones with entry to Apple Intelligence.
Apple has launched a less-expensive iPhone mannequin to spherical out the underside of its lineup since 2016. The iPhone SE, because it was referred to as then, bought additional updates in 2020 and 2022. Usually, the iPhone SE reuses an older design than the latest iPhones, however Apple updates its elements reminiscent of its processor so it could actually obtain ongoing software program updates.
After the previous iPhone SE sells out, there will not be any new iPhones with a fingerprint scanner.
The launch additionally marks a brand new strategy to Apple’s well-known product launches, which garner media consideration all over the world. Beforehand, Apple would reveal new merchandise stay and on-stage, at a presentation on its campus in California. In 2020, Apple stopped inviting individuals to stay launches and began screening advertising movies on its web site and YouTube as a substitute.
Lately, Apple has began to quietly launch new merchandise by way of press releases, reminiscent of the brand new Macs it announced last September. It might be testing how a lot buzz it could actually get for considered one of these quieter launches. Final week, forward of Wednesday’s launch, Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner posted a message on social media: “Prepare to fulfill the latest member of the household.”
