Apple presented on Tuesday an improved line of new iPhones, including a thinner iPhone Air, and kept prices without changes despite the tariffs of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, which have affected the company’s profits.
The iPhone Air has a high density battery and a totally new processor, and will have an initial price of $ 999. Wall Street was attentive to see if the company would increase the price of iPhones or look for alternative routes to compensate for the costs of tariffs, such as increasing the price of iPhone versions with more storage.
The model was the star of the annual product launch event, with the CEO Tim Cook saying: “We are making the greatest jump in the history of the iPhone.” Apple called it the most resistant iPhone so far. It will use the A19 PRO, a processor chip that, according to the company, has been optimized for better energy efficiency and performance, adapting to the thinnest battery of the device. Competitors such as Samsung already sell phones promoted by their extremely thin profile.
The price of the iPhone Air is among those of the company’s other models, as analysts had predicted. Apple also launched the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro, the last update of its flagship smartphone, as well as a new version of the Airpods Pro wireless headphones and a blood pressure monitor in its latest Apple Watch.
You may be interested: Apple presents the iPhone Air, the thinnest so far
The 256 gigabytes version of the iPhone 17 base will have an initial price of $ 799, as well as the previous model, iPhone 16, with half storage capacity. The iPhone 17 Pro will begin at $ 1.099 for a model of 256 Gigabytes, just like last year’s model with the same storage capacity, but without the option of a lower capacity phone at a lower price than $ 999 such as the iPhone 16 Pro.
Apple also did not increase the prices of the clock models or the new Airpods Pro 3.
Prices indicate that Apple was willing to assume the cost of tariffs to face the competition of Samsung, Google and national rivals in China, even when it had predicted that taxes would cost him more.
Apple’s shares fell 1.6% after the company announced the prices of smartphones.
“They are taking advantage of their scale to try to keep the prices where they are,” said Tom Mainelli, head of the IDC device and consumers research group. “I think Apple, like most technology suppliers, is very conscious, especially in the US, that tariffs will affect the consumer’s expense capacity in the second half of the year. So … they will keep prices and try to make people update their devices between now and end of the year at the same price as last year.”
The iPhone Air will compete directly with the S25 EDGE Galaxy of Samsung Electronics, and analysts told Reuters that it could be a step towards competition with Samsung folding phones, which are already going for its seventh generation. A folding phone is key for Apple to attract customers in China, where consumers prefer folding and the company has been losing market share.
“This new device will bring a sense of novelty to the iPhone, which has remained the same for too long,” said Paolo Pescatore, an analyst at PP Foresight. He added that “the new and much improved iPhones line looks impressive, which places Apple in a strong position to attend different segments.”
Blood pressure monitor
The event had few comments on how Apple plans to close the gap with companies such as Google, which has used its last flagship phones to show the capabilities of its GEMINI AI models. The company has resorted to an association with Openai, creator of Chatgpt, to enhance many artificial intelligence functions on its devices.
Apple avoided “the nucleus of the AI arms race while positioning itself as a long -standing innovative in AI hardware, with integration at the silicon and device level,” said Gadjo Sevilla, an emarketer analyst.
Apple reported that the iPhone Air will also have a new “N1” chip to manage Wi-Fi communications and a new “C1X” modem for cellular data. The chips for these functions in Apple’s premium devices were supplied by Broadcom and Qualcomm, whose shares fell 2.3% and 1.1%, respectively, on Tuesday afternoon.
“This is Macbook Pro level of computing capacity, on an iPhone,” said Tim Millet, one of Apple Chips executives, during the presentation at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. The iPhone Air will have two cameras and eliminate the physical groove for SIM, releasing more space for the battery.
Apple indicated that the iPhone 17 base model will have a brighter and resistant scratch screen. It will also have a better front camera with a sensor differently to improve horizontal selfies.
The new Airpods Pro 3 will include live language translation. Apple also mentioned that, if both people in a conversation use the Airpods Pro 3, the headphones may translate almost real time conversations.
The blood pressure monitor function is pending regulatory approval, Apple said. The clock will not detect all cases of hypertension, but the company expects the function to notify 1 million people and will be available in 150 countries.
With Reuters information
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