On Tuesday, Apple held their first major product event of this launch season. The company unveiled Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE, two new iPad models, and Apple Fitness+, the first fitness experience built for Apple Watch that brings significant developments in health and wellness features to iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. From innovative chip developments with A14 Bionic to new apps and software, and the debut of Apple One subscription plans, Apple had a slew of significant reveals.
Bill Maurer for Seeking Alpha:
Ignoring the iPad for a minute, yesterday was all about Apple’s product diversification and the future of technology. The Apple Watch has been a tremendous hit over the years, helping to grow the wearables/other segment quite dramatically. The Services segment has also grown nicely, and the new bundle and Fitness+ program fit into the strategy perfectly.
Apple sells premium products, and thus it can charge a premium price. Even when the company launches a new version of a device that doesn’t have many major upgrades, it usually can hold its pricing power. This week’s event certainly showed that with the iPad lineup…
The big upgrade in this year’s 8th generation model was the A12 Bionic processor, which is a lot better than the A10 chipset found in the 7th generation model. However, Apple was able to keep the same base storage (32GB) as well as front/back cameras as the last three generations, and yet the price still starts at $329… On a similar note, Apple kept 64GB as the base storage in the new 4th generation iPad Air. There remains a clear distinction between the Regular (32GB), Air (64GB), and Pro (128GB) models in terms of storage. The new Air got a much better chipset as well, plus a larger screen and a better main camera. However, Apple actually increased the price of this tablet version, going to $599 as compared to the $499 start for the previous generation.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s event yesterday was a nice appetizer for the big event – the world’s first 5G-capable iPhones – coming in just a few weeks.