Wednesday’s event lacked the jokes and industry jibes that people came to expect from the late great Steve Jobs, but Apple CEO Tim Cook did his best to keep things conversational in tone while he rolled out the new products for the company.
Cook preached the ‘industry standard’ quality of the iPhone, and while the smart phone market is full of healthy competition these days, Apple is doing all it can with the new model to prove that the iPhone’s pedigree is still relevant today. The newest features for the iPhone 7 include: water and dust resistance, a slick aluminum body that attempts to simplify the design as much as possible, a 12 mp camera, a four LED flash, and a 7 mp front-facing camera. As mentioned by Business Insider, the headphone jack is a thing of the past, and Apple will instead use the iPhone to promote Lightning-based wireless headphones. The phone has gone back to black, with two different shades — jet black and a matte black — of the lusted-after colour available to fans of the iPhone.
A lot of dedicated iPhone users were feeling the need to get their hands on the new model:
The #iPhone7 is about to blow up once it's released and I don't mean like #GalaxyNote7 “blow up” but more so blow up in terms of popularity
— Rudy Roods (@RoodsRoods) September 7, 2016
Better battery, higher resolution, improved camera….line up expected to be 8 days #iPhone7 ….
— Jassi (@Je_Shampion) September 7, 2016
As Apple made clear in their presentation, users adore the iPhone’s camera. The engineers and designers tried to steer straight towards the concept of the iPhone being a ‘photo supercomputer’ — they even included a second, telephoto camera on the 7S to bring vastly superior zoom capabilities to power users. Twitter posts flocked to the potential of the new camera tech:
#iPhone7 camera is going to show all my flaws. Making sure my make up is blended perfectly is going to be more important than ever.
— Taylor (@TaylorInAmerica) September 7, 2016
The DSLR like camera on the new iPhone with the depth of field is going to put photographers out of work… #iphone7
— Neil S. (@NeilSonii) September 7, 2016
Newsweek made it clear that gaining a Mario Run app — Nintendo has partnered exclusively with Apple to bring the moustachioed hero to the iPhone — is worth losing a headphone jack:
The Apple wrap: iPhone 7 loses headphone jack, iOS gains Mario pic.twitter.com/1qwkvrmOI8
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) September 7, 2016
Of course, the price of the iPhone 7 (starting at $649 USD) is not exactly easy on the wallet:
They made #iPhone7 water resistant so your tears can flow easily over it when you realize it has almost same features as previous model.
— Waleed Nasir (@waleednasir00) September 7, 2016
The Apple Watch Series 2 also dominated the presentations. As Cook noted, Apple leads the smartwatch market, and they’ve doubled down on the fitness features that made the watch so popular. The Series 2 is capable of withstanding water according to watch industry standards, allowing all the fitness-tracking technologies of the previous Apple Watch to apply to the user’s swimming routine. It will also feature a Pokemon Go app developed by Niantic for the smaller screen. The Series 2 will also have built-in GPS.
Twitter was abuzz with the new features for the Series 2:
Time for me to get an Apple Watch! The series 2 is waterproof up to 50 meters! #hawaii #apple #AppleWatchSeries2 #gogetwet
— David Oshiro (@davidoshiro) September 7, 2016
new Apple Watch Series 2 is finally waterproof and GPS equipped. Might be worth buying now
— marek (@marek_witkowski) September 7, 2016
Apple has partnered with two brands to tap into specialized markets with the new watch: Hermes will provide a high fashion option with a series of new bands for lovers of a more traditional strap:
Apple introduces Hermes bands for Apple Watch Series 2 pic.twitter.com/Vco8do6H32
— Engadget (@engadget) September 7, 2016
Apple and Nike have also teamed up to create a runner-centric version of the Series 2 for release later in the Fall:
New Nike edition of the #AppleWatch Series 2 looks quite fierce. #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/iuCEfZ4HKN
— mrbrown (@mrbrown) September 7, 2016
The new, elite-level pricing on the ‘ceramic’ Apple Watch option drew some interesting reactions:
The Apple Watch Series 2 “Ceramic” is the new Gold Apple Watch. $1249. Seriously. pic.twitter.com/PXMgLdqdcO
— Brian Tong (@briantong) September 7, 2016
Apple Watch in ceramic. Looks like my stove. #iPhone7onZDNet
— David Gewirtz (@DavidGewirtz) September 7, 2016
IM GONNA GET MY HANDS ON THAT DANG CERAMIC APPLEWATCH #AppleEvent
— spooky chai (@earthtojazi) September 7, 2016
Overall, the reactions to the new products was enthusiastic. It will be interesting to see how sales play out as the new phone and watch are rolled out this fall. The iPhone 7 and Smart Watch Series 2 will be available to consumers on September 16th.
