MOSCOW, September 10 (RIA Novosti), Ekaterina Blinova - Tim Cook, the Chief Executive Officer of Apple, presented the company’s hotly anticipated new iPhones on Tuesday, September 9th, along with the Apple Watch, a truly innovative product. The new phone will feature a convenient mobile payment system, which will allow iPhone owners to use it in lieu of a credit card.
"Apple Inc. unveiled a watch, two larger iPhones and a mobile payments service on Tuesday as Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook sought to revive the technology company's reputation as a wellspring of innovation," Reuters reports.
Apple demonstrated its new products at its Cupertino, California-based headquarters. Its new devices, the Apple Watch, iPhone 6 (4.7 inches) and iPhone 6 Plus (5.5 inches), are all designed to work together: the phones may be used as digital wallets and the watch links with a phone wirelessly and may serve as a personal healthcare assistant.
"Today, we are launching the biggest advancement in the history of iPhone. They are without a doubt the best iPhones we’ve ever done," claimed Apple's CEO.
Both iPhones are thinner than earlier models, have rounded edges and are equipped with "Retina HD" displays. While the iPhone 6 screen has over 1 million pixels (a third more than the iPhone 5S), the iPhone 6 Plus boasts 2 million pixels: two times more than the phones from the previous generation. The new devices come with an A8 64-bit processor, which is 25 percent faster, Apple says.
"The most significant new phone feature, though, was Apple Pay," CNBC reports, as Americans make about 200 million payments per day. This new "one-touch payment system" will contain users' credit card details within the phone.
"Apple Pay uses short-distance wireless technology called near-field communication, or NFC, to enable users to make purchases – a system already built in to many Android phones," explains CBS News.
Apple Inc. has joined efforts with US financial leaders such as American Express (AXP), Mastercard (MA) and Visa (V) to provide its users with a convenient payment service. The IT leader claims that its customers will be able to use Apple Pay at more than 220,000 American retail stores.
However, Apple Watch attracted the most attention from experts. This truly innovative device has become Apple's first new product in about four years, the Wall Street Journal notes.
The Watch, which Tim Cook has called "the most-personal device Apple has created," comes in two sizes and three versions: the Watch, Sport and Edition. It comes equipped with special sensors which allow the device to "detect a pulse, count steps and suggest fitness goals." It also allows its user to communicate using the device in the way one would a Bluetooth headset. The company has announced that the Apple Watch will be available in the beginning of 2015.
"The iPhone announcement comes as Apple is trying to prove that it can still deliver the type of groundbreaking products that vaulted it from the brink of bankruptcy to become the world's most valuable company by market capitalization," emphasizes the Wall Street Journal.
According to Toni Sacconaghi, a Bernstein Research analyst, Apple Inc. may sell about 182 million of its new iPhones during this fiscal year, starting from October, 2014. Mr. Sacconaghi is expecting a "more pronounced upgrade cycle with the iPhone 6 than Apple has seen historically."
It should be noted that right now Samsung Electronics Co., Apple's main smartphone rival, is winning the market over, with a 34 percent market share of devices with screens that are 5 inches or larger, the Wall Street Journal reports. On the other hand, Apple has to compete with Google, one of the most successful mobile-software producers: more than 85 percent of world's smartphones run on Android OS. Thus, Apple should try hard to keep its customers loyal, IT specialists admit.
