Apple Inc. on Wednesday began a third year of nudging customers to iPhones with 5G-capable technology, betting iterative enhancements will still appeal to buyers who haven’t upgraded to the latest offerings, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The iPhone 14 lineup took center stage for customers and investors at the company’s annual September event at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters and on its website. The new models are an evolutionary offering after the late 2020’s iPhone 12 brought 5G cellular capability for the first time. 5G has been touted as offering faster download speeds, appealing for streaming video and videogames.
The tech giant focused on safety features for the iPhone 14 lineup and newest smartwatches, adding sensors that can detect car crashes and alert authorities. The new smartphones will get satellite connectivity for sending emergency messages to use in areas not touched by cellular towers.
Many analysts had expected to see Apple increase prices for some iPhones, but the company kept starting prices the same compared with a year ago for both base and high-end models. It dropped the cheapest iPhone Mini version.
Demand for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineups helped Apple post record profits and sales in the past two years. IPhone revenue rose 39% in fiscal 2021 and is expected to rise another 6.7% to a record $205 billion this fiscal year, which ends later this month.
“The iPhone’s sales performance year to date has been impressive, and is the biggest reason why the company has largely bucked the economic downturn,” said Gene Munster, managing partner at Loup Ventures. “Keeping that segment’s momentum going this holiday in the face of a stressed consumer will be top of mind for investors when the new models are unveiled.”
Apple has defied an industrywide decline in smartphone shipments, which slipped almost 9% in the past quarter compared with a year earlier, according to researcher International Data Corp. During the first half, the bright spot in the market was smartphones priced above $900, according to Counterpoint Research.
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