Apple Inc. unveiled new iPhone models Wednesday, featuring a water-resistant design, upgraded camera system and faster processor, betting that after six annual iterations it can still make improvements enticing enough to lure buyers to their next upgrade.
The iPhone’s main improvement revolves around the new camera. Past models have had only one lens on the back, but the new version features a dual-lens system on the larger iPhone 7 Plus. The technology allows for sharper, brighter photos with better ability to zoom without degrading quality. Apple released a few details about the new phone on its Twitter account while Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook was giving a presentation at an event at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.
Even as iPhone demand has waned in recent quarters, partly due to the lull between product launches, the device continues to be the biggest source of Apple’s revenue. The iPhone is at the center of an ecosystem of products from Apple TV to the Apple Watch that are designed to function in connection with it. The new models will be critical to the holiday quarter, and the world’s most valuable company is counting on them to prop up sales ahead of an expected overhaul of the line in 2017, the iPhone’s 10th anniversary.
To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Gurman in San Francisco at mgurman1@bloomberg.net, Alex Webb in San Francisco at awebb25@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Molly Schuetz
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