On the 7th of September, Apple held its “Far Out” iPhone event. New iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods were announced, each coming with a plethora of features. Yes, all of it was innovation, but none of it brought the kind of excitement Apple used to. Why is that? And why probably this is the best strategy for Apple. Apple’s Announcements Let’s start at the beginning, what happened on the event? Apple launched the new iPhone 14 line, 2 new Apple Watches, and new AirPods Pro. These are all new iterations over existing products, and the company didn’t release any new product line. I will focus just on the iPhones and watches. iPhone During the event, Apple launched four new iPhones: iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max. The base models run last year’s, iPhone 13 Pro, A15 Bionic chip. Both Pro models will run on the new A16 Bionic chip. Apple changed the front-facing camera notch into a “dynamic island”, which is an interesting software solution to the front-camera holes. The Pro models will have always-on displays. All models will drop the physical SIM tray in the US and will be eSIM only, and they will have emergency satellite connectivity. If you are in a spot with no Wi-Fi/cell connectivity and require assistance, these new iPhones will be able to connect to satellites to send compressed emergency alerts and messages. Apple says the satellite service will be included for free for two years, but hasn’t yet mentioned the cost after that. I’m really looking forward to the YouTube videos of people testing this last one. Watch Apple Watch Series 8 looks exactly like the Series 7 with a couple of new tricks under the hood.

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