Taking a look back at another week of news from Cupertino, this week’s Apple Loop includes all the leaks and rumors of the iPhone 7, when the new iPhone will go on sale, updates to iOS, why the iPhone SE is important, the future of Apple's stock price, the iPad grabbing market share from Android, Frank Ocean's Apple Music exclusive, and some memories of the iPod classic.
Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the very many discussions that have happened around Apple over the last seven days (and you can read the weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes).
Everything About The New iPhone Will Make You Blue
Sporting what appears to be a production sample of the iPhone 7 Plus, Unbox Therapy has exposed many of the hardware secrets of Apple's phablet. With the device presumably in production to make the September retail launch, it's next to impossible for Apple to protect against leaks like this. Forbes' Gordon Kelly reports on the changes to the smartphone design and the new features confirmed by the leaks.
In a detailed hands-on we see all the major hardware changes coming to the larger 5.5-inch model including the radical dual lens camera, the missing headphone jack (a prediction I made two years ago), twin external speakers, the inclusion of a Smart Connector and the widely rumoured new blue colour option for the first time.
Using digital calipers Unbox Therapy host Lewis Hilsenteger also found the new iPhone 7 Plus to be fractionally slimmer than the current iPhone 6S Plus. That said at 7.14mm to 7.18mm this is both within a margin of error in the calipers and the construction of the chassis itself so I wouldn’t read much into that. As it stands the iPhone Plus range is still massive and remains the largest 5.5-inch smartphone in the world.
Read more on the leak here on Forbes.
A Street Date For The iPhone 7
Following on from last week's information on the launch of the new iPhone family on September 9th, Evan Blass confirms what many thought would be the case - that sales to consumers will begin on Friday September 16th, one week after Tim Cook's reveal. Nate Swanner at The Next Wed:
Evan Blass, better known to many as EvLeaks, previously noted that pre-orders for the iPhone 7 would begin on September 12. Now his sources claim the phones will hit stores on the 16th:
Fixing iOS 9.3.3 On The Server
Last month's release of iOS 9.3.3 corrected many issues found in the OS, but not all of them. Apple has acknowledged a number of issues with iOS, but these can be cured without a further software update:
While Apple acknowledged that many users upgrading to iOS 9.3.3 had trouble both opening iBooks and accessing their collections, the company says this was just a badly timed coincidence. Instead the problem was a server issue which hit at roughly the same time iOS 9.3.3 was released and has now been fixed. Apple also asked me to reassure users that their iBooks and PDFs were never in danger as they are backed up in iCloud.
Gordon Kelly looks at the issue in more detail. Meanwhile Apple has sneaked out iOS 9.3.4 to address some security concerns, as Zach Hall notes on 9to5Mac.
The SE Stands For Strategic Extension
Where does the iPhone SE fit into Tim Cook's plans? It might have looked a bit out-of-place when it was launched in March, but as the iPhone range splits away from a single design to multiple models, the role of the SE becomes clear:
The strength of the iPhone SE should become more apparent with the upcoming announcement and release of the iPhone 7 family of handsets (including the iPhone 7 Plus and potentially the iPhone 7 Pro). The smaller sized device will sit at the foot of the portfolio as the entry-level device and pick up a level of sales that is commensurate with that position. You can’t judge the SE’s strategic value in isolation, it needs to be seen as a team player.
This is Tim Cook’s victory with the iPhone SE. The iPhone is not a single device with variants, it is now a family of devices that share branding.
My long-term review of the strategy and the seduction of the iPhone SE is here on Forbes.
From Bull To Bond
Apple's current success was built on the iPhone, but that does not mean it now rests solely on the iPhone. While the family of devices is growing (as witnessed by the SE), Charles Arthur believes that the software and services will drive Apple's future, and that is reflected in the stock price:
Apple used to be a “growth stock”: its price rose in a long bull run, beginning when Steve Jobs rejoined in 1997, through to a trough in June 2013 of $56, to what looks like a final peak of $130 in May 2015. Since then, says Cybart, the growth buyers have been replaced by value investors who want a reliable dividend, not a rollercoaster ride. Writing ahead of last week’s results, he called it an “expectations reset”, and suggested: “One sign that a company’s expectations have truly been reset [with Wall Street] is that company’s stock price increases on negative news.” That duly happened.
More thoughts from Arthur can be found at The Guardian.
iPad Grabbing Share From Android
IDC has reported that worldwide tablet sales are down over twelve percent year on year. Apple's unit sales have also dropped, but the strong reception for the two iPad Pro models have allowed Tim Cook and his team to increase the iOS tablet's market share:
Android stands at a 65 percent share, Apple on 26 percent, and Windows picking up the last nine percent.
Apple, seen by many as the standard-bearer and innovator in the tablet space, has also seen a fall in sales. It reported iPad sales in Q2 were a shade under ten million devices, compared to eleven million the previous year. Nevertheless that was enough to increase its share of the shrinking tablet market, and has put it in a good position to influence the development direction of the tablet form factor over the next twelve months.
Ocean's Tricky Second Album Belongs To Apple
Apple continues to push itself as a destination for music, and the latest exclusive signing to Apple Music emphasis that message. Rapper Frank Ocean's new album launches today (Friday 5th), and it will have an exclusive premier on Cupertino's music service.
Gaining exclusive rights to Ocean’s new album is a huge win for Apple, as is the accompanying video and printed publication. It’s unclear if Apple produced the video, which is something it has done in the past, but it will presumably be exclusive to Apple Music, as well. “Boys Don’t Cry” will be an Apple Music exclusive for two weeks, according to the report.
Chance Miller has more on the story at 9to5Mac.
Apple Music in full flow (image: Apple.com)
And Finally...
Has the world passed 'peak music engagement' and now succumbed to the power of automatic curation? It's a topic that Lindsay Zoladaz visits in 'An Ode To The iPod Classic', about theta period in history when everyone was forced to select a highly personal 1000 tracks to cart around on a little white box:
The Museum of Modern Art recently hosted an exhibit called “Making Music Modern: Design for Ear and Eye,” which showcased the successive innovations in music players over the past century or so. As I strolled through, the piece that stopped me in my tracks and made me think, wow, look at that dinosaur! was not an old Victrola or a bulkily primitive jukebox — but a first generation iPod, circa 2001, complete with a clunky pre-touch click wheel and (get this) a FireWire port. “Nothing in the world,” writes Ben Lerner in his 2014 novel 10:04, “is as old as what was futuristic in the past.”
Your memory lane of Kelly Clarkson playlists is at The Ringer.
Apple Loop brings you seven days worth of highlights every weekend here on Forbes. Don’t forget to follow me so you don’t miss any coverage in the future. Last week’s Apple Loop can be read here, or this week’s edition of Loop’s sister column, Android Circuit, is also available on Forbes.
