What's Up With Apple: New Products and Maybe More New Products

Technology

Published: September 15, 2021 7:47 am

Last Updated: September 15, 2021 8:00 am

There were no big surprises during the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) product launch Tuesday. New iPhone 13s, new iPads, new Apple Watches and, coming soon, iOS 15.

Investors were not wowed. Apple’s share price fell by nearly 1% on the day, to $148.12, the lowest closing price in more than two weeks.

Virtually everything Apple introduced had already been leaked. The iPhone 13 and 13 mini have a new A15 Bionic chip, twice as much storage space (128 GB), improved cameras and better battery life. The 13 mini starts at $699 and the iPhone 13 at $799.

The iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max get the same chip, an improved display refresh rate, three cameras and a maximum storage point of 1 TB. The 13 Pro starts at $999 and the 13 Pro Max at $1,099. Apple will take preorders for these phones beginning Friday and begin shipping the phones on September 24.

Apple Watch Series 7 gets a larger display, a faster charging system and other incremental improvements. Pricing starts at $399, and the new watch begins shipping “later this fall.”

A new ninth-generation iPad gets the A13 Bionic chip that was first included in the iPhone 11 and an improved front-facing camera, and pricing starts at $329. Apple began taking orders on Tuesday, and the new iPad begins shipping next week.

The new iPad mini also gets the A13 chip, along with 64 GB of storage, a 12-megapixel front-facing camera and a larger display. The new iPad mini carries a starting price of $499, and Apple began taking orders Tuesday. Shipments are scheduled to begin September 24.

The software upgrades to iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and watchOS 15 will be available on September 20.

Apple is expected to hold another event, probably in October, at which it will introduce the new MacBook Pro laptops with 14- and 16-inch screens and an upgraded M1X chip. Other possible new products are an upgraded Mac Mini, a bigger iMac, an updated Mac Pro and a low-end MacBook Pro. All will get Apple’s next-generation in-house-designed chips. At this point, these products and their introduction dates remain speculation.

One thing missing from Tuesday’s event was the third generation of Apple’s AirPods. They could still show up later this year.

Tuesday’s new product introductions came as Apple released a patch to its iPhone and iPad operating systems to patch a zero-day, zero-click vulnerability that can put malware on the devices without a person’s knowledge or consent and track that person’s every call, text or email, again unknown to the user. Apple encourages people using these devices to install the patch as soon as possible: iPhone 6s and later, iPad Pro (all models), iPad Air 2 and later, iPad 5th generation and later, iPad mini 4 and later and iPod touch (seventh generation).