The iPhone, iPad and Watch News Apple Didn’t Share on Stage
The new Apple iPhone 7, which unveiled by Apple Inc. at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on Wednesday. ENLARGE
The new Apple iPhone 7, which unveiled by Apple Inc. at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on Wednesday. Photo: Monica Davey/European Pressphoto Agency
By
Nathan Olivarez-Giles
Updated Sept. 8, 2016 7:46 p.m. ET
Apple Inc. had plenty to talk about on Wednesday as it unveiled the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus with dual-lens camera technology, new wireless AirPod headphones, the second-generation Apple Watch—even Nintendo Co. ’s next smartphone videogame, “Super Mario Run.”
But while the nearly two-hour event at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium covered a lot of ground, Apple made plenty of off-stage moves as well. Here is a rundown of what Apple didn’t say aloud Wednesday.
32GB is the new 16GB
With the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, Apple increased entry-level storage from 16GB to 32GB. It was a painfully overdue move. It also raised the baseline iPhone 6s and 6s Plus to 32GB and eliminated the 64GB intermediate step.
Apple is doing the same thing for iPads. Every model of iPad you can buy new has at least 32GB of storage: the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, 9.7-inch iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, iPad Mini 4 and iPad Mini 2.
The 16GB iPhone Is Dead
Apple has discontinued the long-running cheap iPhone option after years of customer frustration with storage issues.
The 64GB iPhone SE is cheaper
The small and speedy iPhone SE is the last iPhone you can still buy with 16GB of storage. Its starting price, $399, hasn’t changed. But the more expensive 64GB iPhone SE just got cheaper. Apple cut it down from $499 to $449.
The iPad Pro is cheaper too
If you’ve been waiting to get an iPad Pro, your patience could end up saving you $50 or $100—depending on whether you want a 128GB version or a 256GB version, respectively. (The entry-level 32GB version stays the same price.) On Wednesday, Apple cut the pricing on all but the entry-level models. Here are the new prices, as first spotted by the blog MacRumors:
No more solid-gold Apple Watch
When Apple updated its website Wednesday, it removed mentions of the 18-karat-gold Apple Watch Edition that was priced at $10,000 to $17,000. In its place is a more affordable Apple Watch with a similar moniker: the ceramic Apple Watch Edition Series 2.
The ceramic Apple Watch will sell for $1,249 in its 38mm model, and $1,299 in its 42mm variant. Apple hasn’t said that it has given up on selling the solid gold watch. (Apple wouldn’t comment on this.) But for now at least, the Apple Watch’s luxury ambitions have been scaled back.
A necessary dongle
The omission of a traditional 3.5mm headphone jack on the iPhone 7 headphone jack has caused a bit of controversy. Apple is trying to move us all to wireless headphones, but knowing that it will take some time, the company is including a Lighting-to-3.5mm headphone jack adapter with every iPhone 7 sold. What Apple didn’t mention is that if you lose the dongle, or want an extra, you can buy one for $9.
New wireless Beats
Apple introduced the AirPods, which use a custom W1 chip to manage pairing and wireless connectivity to Apple devices—and only Apple devices. Apple is also installing the W1 chip into three new Beats headphones.
Apple did say the new Beats were on their way Wednesday, but the company didn’t mention pricing. The all-new Beats X are headphones with ear pieces that can attach to one another magnetically, so you don’t lose them when they are dangling around your neck. They are coming soon and will sell for $150.
The workout-focused Powerbeats3 are identical to the Powerbeats 2, except for that W1 chip. They’re also set to go on sale soon, priced at $200. Similarly, the Solo3 on-ear headphones are W1-equipped versions of the Solo2, and they are on sale now for $300.
MacOS Sierra comes out Sept. 20
Though Apple gave the Mac no love on stage yesterday, there is still time for the company to make some Mac announcements before the holidays. Meanwhile, there is a new version of the computer operating system. On Sept. 20, MacOS Sierra comes to Apple laptops and desktops as a free over-the-air update. It marks the arrival of Siri on the Mac, and the abandonment of the “OS X” brand.
Stage news you might have missed
There are things that Apple did announce on stage, that may have skipped right past you (or may have gone unreported by us). For instance: The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus has a new color option, shiny jet black, but you can only get it in the pricier 128GB and 256GB versions.
Speaking of the 7 Plus, its cool new depth-of-field camera tricks won’t be available at the phone’s launch, but will come in a “free software update later this year,” said Apple.
The Nike+ version of the Apple Watch Series 2 will be available for preorder on Sept. 9, like the other variants of the new Apple Watch. But it will arrive later, in late October instead of by Sept. 16.
Apple also announced that it is finally bringing real-time collaboration to its iWork suite of apps—something Google Docs has offered for years. With the update, you will be able to edit text documents in Page, presentations in Keynote and spreadsheets in Numbers. Real-time collaboration will land in iWork’s iOS apps on Sept. 13 with the arrival of iOS 10, and on Sept. 20 for Mac computers with the release of MacOS Sierra.
Write to Nathan Olivarez-Giles at
Nathan.Olivarez-giles@wsj.com