Luca Maestri, who held the position for almost 11 years, has been replaced by Kevan Parekh. Another significant milestone in his incredible career will be reached when he takes on his new position, where he will receive an annual salary of USD 1 million.

Since joining the company in June 2013, Kevan Parekh has been instrumental in its success. The University of Michigan awarded him a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, and the University of Chicago awarded him an MBA. Market research, investor relations, and financial planning are just a few of the important duties Kevan Parekh has assumed over the years at Apple.

Kevan Parekh has experience in marketing, sales, and retail, so his knowledge extends beyond finance. He collaborated closely with the engineering and product marketing teams.

According to Bloomberg, Kevan Parekh is a logical choice to succeed departing CFO Luca Maestri because Maestri has been preparing him for this position. Despite not being well-known, he is highly respected at Apple and frequently provides CEO Tim Cook with important financial updates.

Kevan Parekh was instrumental in forming Apple’s operations and strategies in several departments before becoming its CFO.

He held senior leadership positions at General Motors and Thomson Reuters before joining Apple. Kevan Parekh’s keen intellect, good judgement, and in-depth knowledge of Apple have been commended by CEO Tim Cook.

Kevan Parekh’s appointment also comes just before the tech giant’s scheduled release of its Q1 2025 earnings report on January 30. The report, apart from covering iPhone 16 and Apple Watch Series 10 sales extensively, will also make public the venture’s market performance during the recent holiday season.

In Q4 2024 (July to September), Apple reported USD 94.93 billion in revenue, up 6% year-on-year. The company recorded growth in most of its categories, except for Wearables, Home, and Accessories – which includes Apple Watch, AirPods, and HomePod.

Since new products such as the iPhone 16 and Apple Watch Series 10 were launched in mid-September, the Q4 2024 report only included data on the first two weeks of sales for these products.

Apple is also reportedly working on a new technology that could allow the iPhone maker to introduce a smartphone with a larger battery, without drastically increasing the thickness of the handset. While the project looks similar to the one undertaken by Samsung, the technology is not entirely new, given the fact that Chinese firms have already begun to introduce smartphones that are equipped with 7,000mAh batteries, using silicon carbon technology.

Apple Intelligence AI Feature Under Fire

Meanwhile, according to 9To5Mac, Apple’s new AI-powered notification summary feature, which was first included in iOS 18.1, is coming under increased scrutiny after several mistakes were brought to light by the BBC.

According to the publication, the feature, which summarises notifications into summaries, was intended to improve user experience, but recent errors indicate it might require more work.

Notably, the feature, which is currently in beta testing, aims to give users a concise synopsis of notifications rather than the complete content.

The report claims that Apple has admitted the possibility of mistakes and asked users to report any inaccuracies so that the system can be made better.

The BBC has swiftly identified the feature’s flaws, though, which have resulted in some notifications that are inaccurate and misleading.

In one particularly striking instance from December 2024, an AI-generated summary falsely stated that Luigi Mangione (American man who was identified as the suspect in the killing of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare) had shot himself, which was completely untrue, according to the report.

According to BBC, one of the most recent instances was a notification that claimed darts player Luke Littler had won the PDC World Championship even though he hadn’t yet participated in the final.

Furthermore, some users of the BBC Sport app were misled by another notification that falsely stated that tennis legend Rafael Nadal had come out as gay. These mistakes show how difficult it is to use AI to summarise news in real-time, especially when breaking news is involved.

Even though AI can summarise information rapidly, there is a significant chance of misunderstandings or errors, particularly in the fast-paced fields of sports and current events.

Apple may eventually disable AI-generated summaries for news apps by default, at least until the technology advances, according to growing rumours in light of these persistent problems.

Image Credits: Apple

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Following the company’s quarterly earnings release, Tim Cook emphasised that Apple will soon be able to discuss specifics regarding its AI plans.

In an interview with Reuters, Tim Cook stated, “We continue to feel extremely confident about our opportunity in generative AI and we’re making large investments,” adding that the business has invested USD 100 billion in R&D over the previous five years.

During the same period, Apple’s Big Tech competitors have invested as much, if not more, in R&D, but they have also been aggressively investing in the construction of data centres that would house artificial intelligence services.

In the last quarter, Microsoft spent USD 14 billion on capital expenditures (capex), with Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, following closely at USD 12 billion. In April 2024, Meta Platforms advised investors to anticipate capital expenditures of up to USD 40 billion this year.

Apple has a distinct way of thinking. For the entire year 2023, it invested slightly more than USD 10 billion in capital.

With its shares down 10% due to investor concerns that the business was lagging in the artificial intelligence race, Apple—which generates the majority of its revenue from the sale of consumer electronics—has paid a premium for that position for most of this year.

Although investors have baulked at the exorbitant costs of data centres and specialised processors needed to train AI models, shares of Meta, Google, and Microsoft, all of which generate revenue from software and advertising services, have all surged to all-time highs as the companies compete to dominate the emerging artificial intelligence landscape.

Apple signalled that it would not adopt the same strategy. Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri stated that although Apple is anticipated to introduce new AI capabilities at its annual software conference and revamp its product lines with chips that are suitable for artificial intelligence, investors shouldn’t anticipate a significant shift in the way the company manages capital expenditures.

In response to a query from an analyst, Maestri cited Apple’s established policy of dividing the cost of tool production with its suppliers, which has allowed the company to maintain low costs and strong cash flow for more than ten years.

Maestri remarked, “On the data centre side, we do something similar. We use third-party capacity in addition to our data centre capacity. We intend to stick to this paradigm moving forward because it has historically worked effectively for us.”

That may be just as well for Apple, as it’s still uncertain if AI features like chatbots that operate directly on a device will encourage consumers to purchase new laptops, tablets, or phones—which continue to be Apple’s main sources of income.

Better processors might be a “line in the sand” for some customers who want AI technologies for professional use; although Ben Bajarin of Creative Strategies noted that these characteristics might not spark a sales boom.

It won’t be a super cycle, but it will assist increase sales, according to Ben Bajarin.

“You must exercise caution in lowering your standards,” he concluded.

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When Apple released its most recent quarterly earnings on February 1st, the string of bad news continued. According to equity researchers, the company’s revenues increased very little, in the final quarter of 2023.

Recently, Apple decided to put the company through another test. After developing and talking up the Vision Pro augmented reality (AR) headset for a few years, it will begin shipping the device. The expensive device, which will retail for $3,499, is a significant wager on a novel technological ‘platform’ that, perhaps in the future, Apple hopes will displace smartphones as the focal point of users’ digital lives and the iPhone as the source of its creator’s wealth.

Early signs suggest that Apple should be concerned about the future of the device. The well-known streaming services Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube have declared that they will not support the headset version of their software. Nobody explained why. However, it’s also possible that they’re all in direct competition with Apple’s streaming services, and creating an AR app is probably going to be expensive.

Despite various concerns, Apple’s stock price has remained relatively stable in January, providing Tim Cook with some reassurance amidst the challenges. After being surpassed by Microsoft a few days earlier, it regained both its heavyweight stock market title and its $3 trillion valuation. Additionally, considering the headset’s limited initial production, the short-term impact on Apple’s revenues from a failed launch of the Vision Pro will be zero.

However, it would be foolish for Apple’s CEO to ignore the complaints from the new year, because of the larger challenges they indicate for the business. Three main categories can be identified from these: growing geopolitical tensions; slowing iPhone sales; and antitrust and legal issues. Now, none of these are existential. However, there’s always a chance that one will upset the Apple cart. Could they prevent Apple from holding the top spot in the world’s most valuable company rankings for more than a week, is still a question.

Even though Apple’s market value has been in the top ten globally since 2010, it was trading at a low valuation in relation to profits until a few years ago. It was perceived as a hardware manufacturer, a more challenging industry to grow than software. Its price-to-earnings (p/e) ratio, which measures investors’ expectations of future profits, was below 20 for a significant portion of the 2010s, similar to that of Lenovo or HPE, two uninteresting computer manufacturers with slow growth and narrow margins. It was also lower than the S&P 500 index average for large American corporations.

According to broker Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein, this began to change in 2019. The $1 billion or so users of Apple devices receive software from the company’s “services” division, which started to generate revenue. The two largest components of this category are the App Store, which brings in an additional $24 billion annually, and the advertising business, which Bernstein values at $24 billion annually (including about $20 billion from Google for setting its search engine as the default on Apple devices). In addition, Apple provides streaming services for Apple TV and Music, as well as a rapidly expanding payments business. Services generate $85 billion in revenue annually, or 5% of total sales. They only made up $24 billion, or a tenth of total revenue in 2016.

This contributed to investors’ conviction that Apple was no longer a stuffy hardware manufacturer. It was a software platform that allowed paying users to be added for a nominal fee. This translated into more recurring revenue and higher profits—Apple’s services division has a gross profit margin of 71% as opposed to 37% for devices. With services accounting for a larger portion of the company’s revenue, Apple’s overall profitability increased from 38% in 2018 to 44% in 2019. The fact that it was selling more upscale, high-margin iPhone models helped with that as well. All of this contributed to Apple’s p/e ratio rising to approximately 30, well above the average for the S&P 500 and higher than Alphabet’s (Google’s parent company).

Apple’s legal troubles present one set of risks that could reverse its p/e progress. Certain ones, like the patent issue, seem like small threats. The medical device manufacturer Masimo owned patents pertaining to an oxygen-measuring sensor, which were found to have been infringed upon by Apple in October, according to a federal agency called the International Trade Commission. Apple discontinued offering the versions with the problematic technology. However, after turning off the disputed sensor, it began selling them again on January 18.

The main legal issues Apple is currently facing are related to its services division. EU regulations, a sizable market, will take effect in March and compel Apple to permit app installations on its devices without going through the App Store. This makes charging the 30% fee that it charges for the majority of in-app purchases more difficult for it (Apple has filed a lawsuit against the rules).

According to reports, the DOJ is investigating why Apple’s messaging service isn’t available on competing smartwatches and whether the smartwatch performs better when paired with the iPhone than when used alone. Apple may lose out on almost $20 billion in essentially free money each year if courts in a different lawsuit against Google support the DOJ’s claim that the company’s default-search agreements with device manufacturers are anti-competitive. The way Apple charges developers to sell their apps in the App Store has already changed as a result of a lawsuit brought in 2021 by the video game developer Epic Games.

In legal disputes, Apple is not without defence. It swiftly discovered a workaround for the App Store policy modifications brought about by Epic, allowing it to continue collecting large fees. It will likely take years before the DOJ’s case against Google is resolved. Its anticipated lawsuit against Apple is comparable. Investors appear unfazed, as has been the case with many antitrust cases against Apple.

The second area of concern, the company’s slowing core business, is where it is most exposed. In 2018, Apple sold roughly 220 million iPhones, just slightly more than the 217 million it sold in 2017, according to a poll of analysts. Maybe not much more than that in 2024. Apple was able to temporarily offset declining sales with higher prices. However, from an average of 10% between 2012 and 2021, annual revenue growth has dropped to 2% in the last two years.

Rivals are attempting to chip away at Apple’s market share in high-end devices by taking advantage of consumers’ desire for “generative” artificial intelligence (AI) that resembles ChatGPT. By the end of January, Samsung, a leading South Korean tech company, plans to introduce a new line of artificial intelligence-powered smartphones. Vibrant features will include enhanced photo and video editing, as well as real-time voice translation. The devices could go on sale eight months ahead of Apple’s upcoming iPhone models. On the other hand, Apple has said little about its plans for the hottest thing in tech since, well, the iPhone.

“We’re investing quite a bit,” Tim Cook noted cryptically on the company’s most recent earnings call.

China, where Apple makes up 17% of its total revenue, is another market where it is competing fiercely with Apple. An investment bank called Jefferies claims that Apple’s smartphone market share fell in the nation last year. In the meantime, the leading domestic tech company, Huawei, saw an increase of about six percentage points. In August, Huawei surprised observers of the industry—as well as the US government, which for years had prohibited the company from receiving US technology due to national security concerns—by releasing the first 5G device with cutting-edge chips made in China as opposed to imports. Chinese consumers, feeling patriotic, rushed to buy the phone and additional Huawei devices as well.

Concerns regarding Apple’s advancements in AI might be exaggerated. The investment bank Morgan Stanley’s Erik Woodring identifies indicators that show the business is making significant investments. The company’s scientists and Columbia University researchers collaborated to release the open-source Ferret artificial intelligence model in October. After two months, Apple released a paper outlining how these models might operate on smartphones, which have far less processing power than the data centres that are usually used for this kind of work. A South Korean tech blogger claimed in January that artificial intelligence (AI) improvements for Apple’s robot assistant, Siri, would be included in an operating system update, potentially arriving as early as June. Apple is rumoured to be incorporating generative AI into its own search engine.

However, China poses a greater threat than previously thought—and not just because Huawei has revived. Apple’s growth aspirations rely heavily on its performance in emerging markets, especially the largest one. During Apple’s last three earnings calls, Tim Cook began by discussing the company’s sales outside of the wealthy world. He was certainly thinking of China.

Apple’s supply chain exposes it to risks related to China. Even with widely reported attempts to shift some production to India, about 90% of iPhones are still made in Chinese factories. As are the majority of Mac computers and iPads. For at least the next five years, according to Sacconaghi of Bernstein, Apple will be extremely vulnerable to a major geopolitical escalation, such as a conflict over Taiwan.

Aside from a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, other things could harm the business. Increasing trade barriers and Sino-American tensions would undoubtedly result from Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House, now that he has virtually secured the Republican nomination. He is by no means a China dove, even if Joe Biden wins in November’s presidential election against Trump. In response to US sanctions, the Chinese government is starting to retaliate. It has already prohibited the use of certain Micron chips—manufactured in Idaho—in infrastructure projects. There were rumours in September that government officials were forbidding the use of Apple products. The incident alarmed investors even though the authorities subsequently refuted the allegations.

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Revealing more about Apple’s generative AI plans, Tim Cook said that the iPhone maker sees “incredible breakthrough potential for generative AI, which is why we’re currently investing significantly in this area. We believe that will unlock transformative opportunities for users when it comes to productivity, problem-solving and more.”

As per the analysts, Apple has been slower in rolling out generative AI, which can generate human-like responses to written prompts, than industry rivals like Microsoft and Google. Microsoft, in fact, outpaced its competitors in 2023, through its game-changing partnership with ChatGPT developer OpenAI.

The tech giant is now inducting products developed by the AI research and deployment-oriented start-up into its product line-ups. The Satya Nadella-led venture has now announced another multiyear partnership with Mistral, a French AI start-up that’s valued at about USD 2.1 billion.

Tim Cook argued that AI was already at work behind the scenes in Apple’s products but said that there would be more news on “explicit AI features” later in 2024. As per Bloomberg, Apple is planning to use AI to improve the ability to search through data stored on its flagship devices.

“Every Mac that is powered by Apple silicon is an extraordinarily capable AI machine. In fact, there’s no better computer for AI on the market today,” Tim Cook said.

Meanwhile, Apple has cancelled work on its electric car, a decade later after the tech venture started the research and development activities on the project, Reuters stated recently.

Several employees working on the electric car project will now be shifted to the firm’s AI division, as per the reports, adding more to the anticipation around how Tim Cook’s “AI Plan” will look like.

Also, Apple’s decision to shelve its electric car project comes at a time when high interest rates have led to a slowdown in demand for electric vehicles, prompting the industry to cut jobs and reduce production.

Apple started “Project Titan” a decade ago, creating a wave of interest in the domain of self-driving vehicles. Reports suggested in 2020 that the venture considering releasing an electric vehicle as soon as 2024/2025.

However, in reality, progress on this project faced a screeching halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which also disrupted the overall global economy as well as the automobile industry. Apart from laying off 190 workers from the group in 2019 after revamping its software approach, Apple also changed the design of its concept car, from a radical, steering-wheel-free autonomous vehicle to a more conventional car with advanced driver-assistance features.

Microsoft Diversifies AI Portfolio Further

Talking about the Microsoft-Mistral deal, the Financial Times reported that the partnership would include the tech giant taking a minor stake in the 10-month-old AI company, just a little over a year after Microsoft invested over USD 10 billion into its OpenAI partnership.

The deal will also see Mistral’s open and commercial language models being available on Microsoft’s Azure AI platform. With that, the French start-up will become the second company to offer a commercial language model on Azure after OpenAI. Microsoft’s partnership with Mistral will be focused on the development and deployment of next-generation large language models.

Mistral’s AI model, called Mistral Large, has been designed to compete with OpenAI’s GPT-4 model. Unlike some of Mistral’s previous models, the generative AI product won’t be an open source one, as the venture stated, “Mistral Large achieves strong results on commonly used benchmarks, making it the world’s second-ranked model generally available through an API (next to GPT-4).”

Mistral has also launched its “Mistral Small,” offering improved latency over the French start-up’s 8x7B model. Another product released by Mistral was a new conversational chatbot, Le Chat, that’s based on various models from Mistral AI.

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Compared to the USD 98.7 million he received the year before, Tim Cook’s salary for the fiscal 2022 year that ended in September was USD 99.4 million, according to the company’s financial filings.

In 2023, his total compensation will be USD 49 million, with a USD 3 million salary, USD 6 million cash incentive and USD 40 million in equity awards. So, going by mathematical calculations, he will take a more than 40% pay cut this year.

Apple said that in 2022 it sought feedback from shareholders about compensation and it received “overwhelming support for Mr Tim Cook’s exceptional leadership and the unprecedented value he has delivered for shareholders… Those shareholders we spoke with that did not support our 2022 Say on Pay proposal consistently cited the size and structure of the 2021 and 2022 equity awards granted to Mr Tim Cook as the primary reason for their voting decision,” the company said.

Although Apple made the modifications following 2022’s annual meeting, where 94.9% of shareholders had previously accepted Tim Cook’s compensation package, only 64% of shareholders did so.

Tim Cook’s stock awards underwent the most adjustment. He received USD 75 million from Apple in stock awards for the fiscal 2022 period, of which 50% depended on the performance of Apple’s stock. As a result, Tim Cook’s stock award target was decreased to USD 40 million for the fiscal 2023 period, with USD 30 million of the total contingents on share performance.

The USD 30 million in performance incentives may increase to at least USD 60 million if Apple’s shares reach predetermined performance levels.

Apple said its compensation committee took into account shareholder feedback, the company’s performance and a recommendation from Tim Cook, who was promoted to CEO in 2011, to adjust his compensation in light of the feedback received.

Tim Cook has received a USD 3 million base salary since 2019, but his total compensation, which includes the restricted awards, jumped from USD 14.8 million in 2020 to USD 98.7 million in 2021 and USD 99.4 million in 2022.

Apple said Tim Cook supported the changes to his compensation.

The company planned to position Tim Cook’s annual target compensation between the 80th and 90th percentiles relative to its primary peer group for future years, according to the filing. Apple will hold its annual meeting on March 10.

Meanwhile, in other news, Apple has reportedly released preview versions of its Music, TV, and Devices apps for Windows 11 on Microsoft Store, which will replace the Windows version of iTunes, which Apple previously made available in the Windows 10 Microsoft Store alongside iCloud for Windows.

According to GSMArena, Apple Music will support a Windows user’s local music library while also providing access to Apple Music’s paid service.

Apple TV will include original content as well as content from Paramount+, AMC+, Showtime, Starz, and other providers. Users can also rent new releases and view their iTunes purchases.

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‘Metaverse’ consists of Virtual Reality platforms, which the users can use for work and leisurely related activities, with the help of Virtual Reality headsets. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg invested some USD 10 billion into Metaverse in 2021, as per the reports

“I always think it’s important that people understand what something is, and I’m really not sure the average person can tell you what the metaverse is”, Tim Cook told the Dutch publication Bright recently.

“We are committed to bringing this long-term vision to life and we expect to increase our investments for the next several years,” Facebook said last year while putting its bet on Augmented and Virtual Realities to lead the future of social media.

However, Tim Cook thinks that augmented reality (involving superimposing virtual elements onto the real world) will grow further than the Metaverse.

“I think Augmented Reality is a profound technology that will affect everything. Imagine suddenly being able to teach with Augmented Reality and demonstrate things that way. Or medically, and so on. Like I said, we are really going to look back and think about how we once lived without Augmented Reality,” Tim Cook concluded.

Meanwhile, For the first time in history, iPhones are used more frequently than any other kind of smartphone in the United States. According to data from analytics company Counterpoint Research, the iPhone surpassed the whole Android ecosystem in June to capture 50% of the US market share.

As a result, Apple reached its highest-ever market share for smartphones in the United States. Apple credited the achievement to the iPhone’s “active installed base,” a statistic that accounts for all users who have acquired used iOS devices.

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According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the Apple Watch, though it won’t be providing an exact reading, the watch will be able to indicate a spike in body temperature. Following this, one might prefer going to a doctor or using a thermometer.

Gurman says the body temperature sensor still has to pass internal testing, and if it does, Apple’s expected to incorporate the feature in the Watch Series 8, as well as the rumored “rugged” smartwatch for extreme sports athletes.

The body temperature sensor still needs to pass internal testing, says Gurman, and if it does, Apple is expected to include the function in both the Watch Series 8 and the rumoured “rugged” smartwatch, which is specifically made for sports athletes who are engaged in extreme sports.

The rumors surrounding the new body temperature sensor have been going on rounds for many years. Gurman had initially mentioned its possibility in June 2021, but later in January 2022, he retracted his statement.

He then reversed course once again in April, noting that we can expect a body temperature sensor “as early as this year.”

Then, in April, he yet again made a complete u-turn and said that we can anticipate a body temperature sensor “as early as this year.”

Supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also echoed the views of Gurman. He also claimed that the body temperature sensor will make its debut later this year.

Gurman stated that any other modifications to the Apple Watch’s hardware “will probably be minor”.

He also made a suggestion that more expensive models would have a better display.

Image credit: Apple

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“iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are a new generation of iPhone that improve on everything we love about iPhone,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus have new glass and aluminum designs, new Retina HD displays and A11 Bionic — the smartest chip ever in a smartphone. Packed with more advanced cameras with Portrait mode and Portrait Lighting, and the highest quality video capture in a smartphone, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus enable the freedom of wireless charging, all with AR optimization like no phone ever before.”

Stunning New Glass and Aluminum Design

iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus introduce a beautiful glass back design made with the most durable glass ever in a smartphone in three new finishes: space gray, silver and gold. The glass finish is made using a seven-layer color process for precise hue and opacity, delivering a rich depth of color with a color-matched aerospace-grade aluminum bezel, and is water and dust resistant.

The new 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch Retina HD displays with the addition of True Tone adjust the white balance of the display to match the surrounding light for a more natural, paper-like viewing experience. The vibrant wide color gamut Retina HD display offers the best color accuracy in the industry. Redesigned stereo speakers are up to 25 percent louder and deliver deeper bass, enabling richer-sounding music, videos and speakerphone calls.

Introducing A11 Bionic
A11 Bionic, the most powerful and smartest chip ever in a smartphone, features a six-core CPU design with two performance cores that are 25 percent faster and four efficiency cores that are 70 percent faster than the A10 Fusion, offering industry-leading performance and energy efficiency. A new, second-generation performance controller can harness all six cores simultaneously, delivering up to 70 percent greater performance for multi-threaded workloads, giving customers more power while providing the same great battery life. A11 Bionic also integrates an Apple-designed GPU with a three-core design that delivers up to 30 percent faster graphics performance than the previous generation. All this power enables incredible new machine learning, AR apps and immersive 3D games.

All-New Camera for Better Photos and Video
The world’s most popular camera gets even better, featuring an improved 12-megapixel camera with a larger and faster sensor, a new color filter and deeper pixels. A new Apple-designed image signal processor delivers advanced pixel processing, wide color capture, faster autofocus in low light and better HDR photos, while a new quad LED True Tone Flash with Slow Sync results in more uniformly lit backgrounds and foregrounds. All this adds up to outstanding photos with vibrant, realistic colors and more detail.

The new camera also delivers the highest quality video capture ever in a smartphone with better video stabilization, 4K video up to 60fps and 1080p slo-mo up to 240fps. The Apple-designed video encoder provides real-time image and motion analysis for optimal quality video. With iOS 11, both iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus support HEIF and HEVC for up to two times compression and storage for twice the photos and videos.

iPhone 8 Plus features dual 12-megapixel cameras and introduces Portrait mode with Portrait Lighting, bringing dramatic studio lighting effects to iPhone, allowing customers to capture stunning portraits with a shallow depth-of-field effect in five different lighting styles.

Portrait Lighting is based on extensive research into the art and science of portraiture and core photographic lighting principles. It uses the dual cameras and the Apple-designed image signal processor to recognize the scene, create a depth map and separate the subject from the background. Machine learning is then used to create facial landmarks and add lighting over contours of the face, all happening in real time, giving customers even more power to express themselves through photography.

Designed for a Wireless Future
The glass back design enables a world-class wireless charging solution. Wireless charging works with the established Qi ecosystem, including two new wireless charging mats from Belkin and mophie, available from apple.com and Apple Stores.

Apple gave a sneak peek of AirPower, an Apple-designed wireless charging accessory coming in 2018, which offers a generous active charging area that will allow iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus or iPhone X customers to simultaneously charge up to three devices, including Apple Watch Series 3 and a new optional wireless charging case for AirPods.

Featuring iOS 11, the World’s Most Advanced Mobile Operating System
iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus come with iOS 11, featuring incredible advancements to Portrait mode, while new effects make Live Photos more fun and expressive.

iOS 11 also brings augmented reality to hundreds of millions of iOS devices with a new platform for developers to build apps that let users place virtual content on top of real-world scenes. Siri debuts new male and female voices and can translate US English phrases into Chinese, French, German, Italian or Spanish.

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The first iPhone was released in June 2007 and was a phenomenonal success. The company could not keep pace with demand. Despite this, Jobs offered each employee a free iPhone.

Later, Jobs introduced users to the world of apps, which is now an integral part of smart phones.

Since then, every year, the world has been looking forward to the next big thing from Apple. Despite competition intensifying over the years with rival offering similar features at a lesser cost and, at times, even better features, Apple continuous to be the company that others look up to for innovation. As the company prepares to unveil its latest phone, we take a look at its phones over the years.

Apple’s biggest event to showcase its new launches
Big day for Apple iphone fans

2007: iPhone
Released on June 29, 2007, it featured quad-band GSM cellular connectivity with GPRS and EDGE support for data transfer. Jobs had generated such frenzy with his idea of a phone that thousands of people queued up outside stores to pick up a piece.

2008: iPhone 3G
Included GPS, 3G data and tri-band UMTS/HSDPA. Introduced the App Store, which was a platform for third-party applications.

2009: iPhone 3GS
The ‘S’ stood for speed. The phone had a 3-megapixel camera that supported video and 7.2 Mbit/s HSDPA downloading.

2010: iPhone 4
A phenomenal device, it came in a stainless steel frame, which doubled as an antenna, with internal components situated between aluminosilicate glass. It introduced ‘Retina Display’ with a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch while maintaining the same physical size and aspect ratio as its precursors. Was marketed as the thinnest smartphone in the world.
It introduced A4 system-on-chip, along with iOS 4, which introduced multitasking functionality and the FaceTime video chat for which it included a front-facing camera.

2011: iPhone 4s
Will forever be know for being released the year Jobs passed away.

2012: iPhone 5
Was the last iPhone to be overseen by Steve Jobs and the first to be developed under the guidance of Tim Cook. Came with an aluminum-based body, which was thinner and lighter than previous models, a taller screen, the A6 system-on-chip, LTE support, and a compact dock connector, which replaced the 30-pin design used by previous models.

2013: iPhone 5S
Home button came with a fingerprint recognition system, which can be used to unlock the phone and authenticate App Store and iTunes Store purchases. Came with A7 64-bit dual-core processor, the first 64-bit processor to be used on a smartphone, and the M7 ‘motion co-processor’.

2014: iPhone 6
The iPhone 6 Plus had a larger display. Both phones had a faster processor, upgraded cameras, improved LTE and Wi-Fi connectivity, and support for a near field communications-based mobile payment services.

2015: iPhone 6s
Came with upgraded system-on-chip, a 12-megapixel camera, improved fingerprint recognition sensor and LTE Advanced support. Introduced pressure-sensitive touch inputs.

2016: iPhone 7/7 Plus
Introduced new colour options, water and dust resistance and a new home button. It did away with the 3.5 mm headphone jack. Boasts of a better camera.

2017: iPhone?

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The iPhone Juggernaut is showing no signs of slowing down despite intense competition from Samsung and other players coming up with better smart phones and features.

In fact, the unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 fueled further speculation on how Apple will top the Korean company’s latest big-ticket product.

One of the most debated points is whether fans would be willing to shell out $1,000 for the new phone. It is amazing the kind of frenzy Apple has been able to generate with its products.

Also Read: Apple to reportedly launch the iPhone 8 on September 12
Apple TV with 4K and HDR support reportedly coming this fall

Investors are also excited because the company has continued to grow despite worries about its ability to impress fans with new products, fall in sales in China and the inability to make inroads in India. The question is not what more the company can do with the iPhone, but what new lifestyle-changing innovation will unfold on September 12. Investors believe that the company continues to hold a lot of promise. Its stock has risen by over 40% over the past year, possibly anticipating a buying frenzy post September 12.

The ante has been upped this year, as it is the 10th anniversary of the launch of the iconic iPhone, which changed the way people interacted with their phone.

Actually, Apple introduced the word interacting in the context of the mobile phone. Then came the promotion of the phone to a smart phone. Today, a lot of phone manufacturers are talking of the premium segment. But, the 10th anniversary product is expected to take Apple from the premium to the super premium territory. Some call it the luxury territory. Basically, Apple stays one step ahead, which is why it has a loyal fan base that is willing to splurge on its latest products.

It is certain that the new iPhone will spew a host of imitations, at least of some of the features, which is only good news for the phone manufacturing industry in general.

There will be problems in shipment because historically, Apple has taken anywhere from one month to three to meet demand for its phones. This gives sufficient time for smaller companies to come up with phones sporting similar features, but much cheaper than an iPhone.

The new phone is also expected to lift Apple’s sales in China after a significant slowdown earlier this year raised a lot of concern among investors. But the debate is whether the Chinese will be willing to shell out $1,000 for a new phone. So far, Apple has not had a problem with persuading fans to splurge. No reason why they can’t do it, especially in an anniversary year.

For the rest, a lot will depend on the features.
High prices are a deterrent in developing countries. Much of the growth in these countries is driven by cheaper phones running on Android. And, this is unlikely to change irrespective of what Apple has to offer because its products are simply not meant for the masses. Secondly, even existing fans are not willing change a phone every year. Only wealthy people buy Apple phone, which in sheer numbers is not much.

But even they might shun the new phone if it does not look different from the old one. Hence, the intense speculation about looks and possible features.

Most people in developing countries start with a no-frills handset. Some of them are in the process of upgrading to a low-end smart phone with a few features. It will take a few years for them to consider an iPhone. So, Apple’s market is largely constricted by price.

As compared to this, Samsung and other companies are catering to every segment of the market.

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But September 12 may not be only about the phone. There are expectations of announcements on the Apple watch and Apple TV, but of which have not taken off.

Competition in both segments is strong, which means Apple will have to do more than offer an upgrade. They might have to come up with totally new products.

If Apple awes fans, as it has in the previous nine years, the mobile phone industry could be in for a big boost.

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