As faithful Apple followers know, September announcements usually mean a new iPhone. And Apple followed the script once again this year.
But this time, Apple introduced two new phones. The 5C comes with a plastic cover and will sell at a lower price point than usual for new iPhones. The 5S has all the latest technology from the company, including a faster
processing chip and improved camera. Both phones come in a variety of colors.
2:30 P.M. And We’re Done
The event is now over — no big surprises from Apple. We’ll have to wait to see whether the company has done enough to generate more sales in emerging markets. But it appears the company is still setting the pace for smartphone technology.
2:29 P.M. Video: Facing Strong Competition
Apple Announcement: Android Competition
Nick Bilton, technology columnist for The Times, on how Apple’s new iPhone may allow the company to compete with less expensive Google Android phones.
By Sean Patrick Farrell on Publish Date September 10, 2013.2:21 P.M. A Point on 5C Pricing
The iPhone 5C is $550 at full price. That’s far higher than analysts predicted.
— BRIAN X. CHEN
2:07 P.M. Answering Reader Questions
There have been weeks of rumors and speculation about Apple’s product announcements on Tuesday. Now that the day has come, what do you want to know about the new iPhones, the operating system or other products Apple is introducing? Ask your questions here.
— THE NEW YORK TIMES
2:10 P.M. And Now, a ‘Return to Music’
“Before we close this morning, I’d like to return to music for a moment,” Mr. Cook said, as an icon of a musical note landed on the screen. Then Elvis Costello walked onstage to sing a song.
2:06 P.M. Release Date for iPhone 5C and 5S
The new iPhones will be available for pre-order next week. You will be able to buy them Sept. 20.
They will also be available in China. Many analysts expect the less-expensive iPhone 5C to help Apple enter some of the emerging markets where current Apple products are too costly for most customers. These are traditionally markets like Russia, China and India, where hundreds of millions of people are buying smartphones each year.
2:04 P.M. Pricing for iPhone 5S
The new iPhone 5S will cost (with a two-year contract) $199 for 16 gigabytes, $299 for 32 gigabytes, and $399 for 64 gigabytes.
2:01 P.M. Using the Fingerprint Scanner
Opening a phone with the fingerprint scanner looks to be easy. You click on the Home button and hold your finger down for a few seconds. If you’re concerned about privacy issues, Apple allows you to turn off the fingerprint scanner.
It can also read multiple fingerprints so that several people can have access to a single phone.
1:59 P.M. A Feature ‘All About Security': A Fingerprint Scanner
We’re moving onto the third new feature. “The third feature is all about security,” Mr. Schiller said.
No more remembering your phone’s passcode, or having to type in a series of numbers to check the weather: Apple is including a fingerprint scanner in the new iPhone 5S. It’s embedded in the Home button at the bottom of the phone — which incidentally now has a silver ring around it to make it seem more pronounced. The new fingerprint scanner is called Touch ID.
In 2012, Apple bought a fingerprint-reading company called AuthenTec. The new scanner is probably part of that acquisition. The company first started patenting fingerprint technology, but filed the last fingerprint-related patent in May of this year.
1:51 P.M. An Improved Camera System for the iPhone 5S
The iPhone 5S has a new camera system with an f.2.2 aperture. The aperture size controls how much light is let into the camera’s sensor, which should give users a chance to take better photos at night, and even during the day, just by opening the aperture on the camera.
There also a dual-LED rear-camera flash, which will also help improve photos that are taken in low light. In addition, a dual-LED flash can allow a camera’s flash to travel longer distances.
There’s also a new burst mode with the camera. While you hold down on the shutter button it can take 10 frames a second.
The camera also features a new slow-motion mode for video that will allow people to record videos at 120 frames-per-second. The video example shown on the screen is like watching the opening of a National Geographic special on TV.
1:46 P.M. Monitoring Motion on the iPhone 5S, and Battery Life
There’s a new chip called the M7 that can monitor motion in the iPhone 5S, which will help app makers keep track of a user’s activities throughout the day, like the number of steps taken.
The iPhone 5S battery is better than the iPhone 5’s, we’re told: 250 hours standby.
1:42 P.M. The Ultimate Object of Desire
Apple’s latest iPhone announcement has at least one observer wondering what the true object of telephonic desire is.
1:40 P.M. Showing Off the Graphics Power on iPhone 5S
We’re seeing a demo from an Epic game on the new iPhone 5S. The graphics looks like they are on a PC gaming device.
1:39 P.M. The iPhone 5S Comes in 3 Colors, and With Speed
The iPhone 5S is made of a high-grade aluminum, Mr. Schiller said. “It is the gold standard in smartphones.” It comes in gold, silver and gray.
It looks to be the same size and thickness as the iPhone 5.
Mr. Schiller has started talking about bits and floating-point registers and other things that most consumers will not understand. The new iPhone uses an A7 chip, he says, which is 64-bit, the first in a phone of any kind. Translation: fast.
The iPhone 5S is 40 times faster than the first iPhone.
1:34 P.M. The iPhone 5S Is Introduced
Mr. Schiller is back on stage and talking about the second new iPhone. It’s called the iPhone 5S.
“It’s the most forward-thinking phone ever made,” Mr. Schiller said.
There’s an iPhone 5S video now, showing molten gold forming into a phone. I feel like I’m at the beginning of a Batman movie.
1:34 P.M. Video: Expanding Customer Base and Emerging Markets
Apple Announcement: Emerging Markets
Nick Bilton, technology columnist for The Times, on how Apple is competing for smartphone sales in emerging markets in Brazil, Russia, India and China.
By Sean Patrick Farrell on Publish Date September 10, 2013.All the announcements today seem to be going after one thing: taking market share from Google’s Android platform, which has been growing fast in emerging markets, especially Asia.
1:27 P.M. IPhone 5C Camera and $99 Pricing
The iPhone 5C will have an 8 megapixel camera and a new FaceTime camera. As for the cell service, Mr. Schiller said: “It supports more LTE bands than any smartphone in the world.”
The 5C, the cheaper of the two versions of the iPhone being introduced today, will cost $99 for 16 gigabytes and $199 for 32 gigabytes, with a two-year contract.
Now there is a video playing showing how the phone was manufactured.
1:25 P.M. More Details on the iPhone 5C
Now we’re seeing a demo of the new iPhone 5C from Philip W. Schiller, Apple’s marketing chief. It has a black face and comes in five new colors: white, red, blue, yellow and green. The colors are bright.
“As close as you look you won’t see seams or flat lines or joints,” Mr. Schiller said.
Inside there is a new construction, he said, and the phone has a 4-inch retina display.
1:27 P.M. Color Possibilities
1:22 P.M. And Now… the iPhone 5C
Mr. Cook is moving on to the iPhone. He said that the iPhone 5 took the iPhone business to a new level.
He said that when Apple has announced a new iPhone in the the past the company has lowered the price of a previous version of the iPhone to make it more accessible to more people.
“But this year we’re not going to do that,” he said. “We’re going to replace it with not one but two designs.”
The iPhone 5C, as everyone expected, is the second iPhone. Plastic with a color case.
— BRIAN X. CHEN
1:18 P.M. Moving On to Productivity and iWork
Mr. Cook is back and is talking about iWork, the productivity software. He’s talking about the Keynote, Pages and Numbers apps on iPhones or iPads.
“No other platform has any apps like these,” Mr. Cook said. He then said that Keynote, Pages, Numbers, iPhoto and iMovie were free.
They can be downloaded to any new iPhone or iPad free of charge, Mr. Cook said, to loud applause.
1:15 P.M. A Demo of the Camera App and Timing of iOS 7 Release
We’re seeing a demo of the new Camera app — which was previewed in June at the Worldwide Developers Conference — that is much faster than the current version in iOS 6. The Camera app has built-in access to live photo filters. People can also organize images into new organizations, including by location or time. There is a very slick user interface that can zoom out into a year view, which shows tiny icons of your photos.
Mr. Federighi said there are over 200 new features in iOS 7, with a number of new apps being designed around the new interface.
He added: “iOS 7 will be available — unbelievably, for free — on Sept. 18.”
1:13 P.M. Updates to Siri
Siri is now having her (or his) turn in the spotlight. The voice-activated digital assistant on the Apple iPhone is getting an upgrade. It will have a new male voice and will receive several new voice commands, including searching Wikipedia and other sites on the Web.
Apple has been working hard to improve Siri over the last couple of years after it received some negative reviews and feedback after it failed to understand what some customers were saying. Apple is also competing with the Google Android operating system’s voice command features.
1:12 P.M. Can Batteries Hold Up Under iOS 7?
Apple insists iOS 7 will be the most popular mobile operating system. But what I wonder is how iOS 7 will affect battery life of the older iPhones, like the iPhone 4S. It offers full multitasking capabilities and some other processor-intense features.
— BRIAN X. CHEN
1:09 P.M. Video: The Latest on iOS 7
Apple Announcement: Design
Nick Bilton, technology columnist for The Times, on changes to Apple’s new mobile operating system.
By Sean Patrick Farrell on Publish Date September 10, 2013.Next up: iOS 7. Mr. Cook said the new operating system will ship next month to 700 million new devices. He’s invited Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president for software engineering, to discuss more about iOS 7.
“Virtually overnight, hundreds of millions of people will download iOS 7,” Mr. Federighi said.
We’re seeing a walk-through of iOS 7, which was first showcased earlier this year. The new design has lots of flat design and thin iconography — unlike its 1980s-era skeuomorphic predecessor. The stark open white space in the design is a calming as a zen monastery. The new design really does make the iPhone screen look like an entirely new phone.
1:07 P.M. Moving on to Retail News
Mr. Cook turns to talking about retail. A new Apple store opened last weekend in Stanford, Calif., that is glass on three sides and looks like a museum.
1:05 P.M. Updates on the iTunes Festival
Mr. Cook is talking about the iTunes Festival. “It’s 30 nights of live performances in London,” he said, that are then shared on iTunes. Lady Gaga opened the festival, he said, and Justin Timberlake will be performing. He says 20 million people have applied for tickets to see the show.
The concerts will be live-streamed in more than 100 countries around the world, to iPhones, iPads, laptops and Apple TV.
We’re seeing a video of the iTunes Festival and how it is set up. Lots of hip cool music playing, and a lot of hipsters waiting in line to see the concerts.
1:04 P.M. Battery Enhancements
1:02 P.M. Going International?
Mr. Cook also thanks people who are joining in Beijing and Tokyo. A sign of what is to come?
1:02 P.M. Cook Takes the Stage
Mr. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, has walked on stage to loud applause from the audience. He’s wearing his usual uniform: a black button-up shirt and dark jeans. He’s thanking everyone for coming. (You’re welcome, Mr. Cook.)
12:52 P.M. Getting Ready to Start
We’re all settling into our seats in the auditorium on Apple’s campus. There is strange pop music playing as tech bloggers and reporters power up their gadgets to begin recording the main event. Al Gore is here, chatting with Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive.