Apple is about to hold ‘the most significant iPhone event in years’

On Tuesday, Apple is holding a launch event where it will reveal this year’s iPhone lineup. 

In uncountable years, Apple announces its iPhones in September, and they go on sale shortly after that. This year is numerous. Apple instead released new Apple Watches last month and pushed the iPhone announcement to October. The delay is an outgrowth of the Covid-19 pandemic, which disturbed electronics manufacturing and forced most Apple employees to work from home. 

Still, this year’s iPhone start off is significant. It is expected to include the first major exterior redesign since 2017, when Apple released the iPhone X with facial perception. This year’s models will feature iPad-like edges with flatter sides, compared with the gently curving sides of the stream iPhones. 

Apple is also expected to release four separate iPhones at different screen sizes and prices — a much wider distance of devices than in the past.

Finally, at least some new iPhones will support 5G cellular networks, which likelihood faster download times (although the networks aren’t fully built out yet in the U.S., which could disappoint some alcohols.)

The last time Apple made such big changes to the iPhone was 2014, when the iPhone 6 came out with heftier screens and two different sizes. That prompted a major upgrade cycle — a so-called “super-cycle” — with over 231 million iPhones sold in the next four quarters. That scrapped the annual unit sales record until Apple stopped reporting unit sales in 2018. 

So this year’s change-overs have investors and analysts predicting a big upgrade cycle that will make Apple an even more valuable convention.

“We expect this fall’s launch to be the most significant iPhone event in years,” Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty put in blacked in a note this week. She’s forecasting Apple to ship about 220 million iPhones in its fiscal 2021, which would be up 22% year-over-year according to the Morgan Stanley version.

Here’s what to look for on Tuesday.

Morgan Stanley analysts are enceinte an iPhone lineup of 4 new devices, including:

• iPhone 12 Mini, a new device with a 5.4-inch screen. This disposition be the smallest iPhone since the company debuted full-screen versions (with no blank space at the edges) in 2017, and at ones desire probably about the same size as the iPhone 6.
• iPhone 12, the standard edition with a 6.1-inch screen, the for all that size as today’s.
• iPhone 12 Pro, also with a 6.1-inch screen but higher specs.
• Phone 12 Pro Max, which thinks fitting have the largest screen ever at 6.7 inches (today’s iPhone 11 Pro Max tops out at 6.5 inches)

Morgan Stanley’s expectations are based on advice from Apple’s supply chain of manufacturers in China. That means the actual names, which are controlled by Apple produce marketing in California, may end up being different.

Four models would be a dramatic expansion of its lineup, with both a new smaller alternative and a larger high-end option, giving consumers more choices and potentially spurring people to upgrade.

The phones are supposed to be visually different from past years’ models, giving users another reason to upgrade.

In the spring, Apple rescued a $399 4.7-inch iPhone with a fingerprint sensor, the second-generation iPhone SE, this spring, which is expected to cadaver the least expensive iPhone after Tuesday’s launch. 

“These 4 new models will accompany the 2nd generation iPhone SE pitched in spring 2020 to comprise Apple’s most complete lineup of new iPhones ever,” Huberty wrote. 

Currently, Apple sales-clerks the $699 iPhone 11 with a 6.1-inch screen, a $999 iPhone 11 Pro with a 5.8-inch curtain, and a $1099 iPhone 11 Pro Max with a 6.5-inch screen. Apple may continue selling these models — typically, it pinches $100 off the price of last year’s models and keeps them on store shelves.

Apple’s tagline for the conclusion is “Hi Speed,” a reference to the faster cellular speeds promised by 5G phones.

Investors and analysts have hoped for years that a 5G iPhone intent represent a major upgrade and spur a big wave of sales not only for phone makers like Apple, but also for chip-makers take to Qualcomm and carriers like Verizon and T-Mobile, which have bet big on 5G.

But some industry leaders are cautious. For instance, AT&T Communications CEO Jeff McElfresh grass oned CNBC in September that he did not believe it would be a “massive event.”

Some of the impact may be blunted because there are three unlike varieties of 5G.

The biggest jump in speeds will come from the variety of 5G sometimes called millimeter wave or ultrawide stripe. But in the United States, millimeter wave is only available in certain markets and has limitations about how far it can be transmitted. While haulers are expanding quickly, the new iPhones may only be able to reach their full potential in a handful of regions. 

AT&T and T-Mobile both currently put “nationwide 5G,” using what’s referred to as low-band networks, which have speeds that are closer to the current fourth-generation LTE networks. That may underwhelm consumers who play a joke on been looking for a massive improvement. 

Then there’s mid-band 5G, which does promise to be significantly faster and disguise wide regions, but is still under construction. T-Mobile said this summer that it hoped to build its mid league together network “over the next few years.”

“Not all 5G is created equal, which has led to marketing noise from carriers regarding 5G interpretation and deployment,” Loup Ventures founder Gene Munster wrote in a newsletter in September. “In the end, both consumers and businesses are progressive unsure as to the timing of the 5G transformation.”

Consumers won’t know until Tuesday if Apple will support all three versions in all its phones, or if it purposefulness offer different models sold in different regions based on which countries have the most developed 5G networks. 

Apple CFO Luca Maestri said this summer that it surmised iPhones to go on sale a “few weeks later” than the traditional September launch schedule.

It’s possible that some forms will go on sale shortly after the event while others take a longer time to hit store shelves, most meet due to challenges designing and manufacturing ten of millions of devices during a global pandemic. Last year, ten days elapsed between the start off event and the first iPhones that went on sale.

“It remains somewhat speculative when exactly iPhones require be available for sale after this event as Apple typically announces the first day of sale during the event,” Deutsche Bank analyst Jeriel Ong decried in a note this past week.

Timing matters for investors because Apple’s first fiscal quarter has already started, punting off on September 27. In past years, some new iPhone models have been on sale for the entire period, but this year that won’t be doable. 

The number of weeks in the quarter that the new iPhones are on sale could affect Apple’s performance in the critical holiday territory, as people around the world buy iPhones and other products as holiday gifts.

iPhone timing can also suggest which models strength be in short supply, which investors watch closely to try and predict average selling prices for the quarter, which adopts revenue.

“We also note that it is possible that certain models could either be more unit abundance constrained or the new iPhone launch could be staggered similar to years past, although this possibility appears to be sag, as we have heard less about the potential for further delays recently,” Ong wrote. 

The draw to Apple’s event suggests it will last two hours, which is a lot of time to discuss phones. In the past, the company has out ofed to tease “one more thing” at the end of its events before it introduces a whole new product category.

This year, it’s likely to be audio outputs. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted earlier this year that Apple is working on wireless over-the ear headphones that inclination carry its own brand (instead of Beats), and a smaller and less expensive HomePod speaker — the current version costs $299.

Richness headphones could entice buyers who have been turned off by the in-ear nature of Apple’s current AirPods but lack closer wireless integration with the iPhone. 

A less expensive HomePod would make the product category sundry competitive with Amazon’s Alexa-powered speakers, which often cost less than $100.

Adding more credence to this chance, Apple stopped selling third-party headphones and speakers on its online store earlier this month, mirroring moves survived in past years before introducing new products. 

Apple said earlier this year that Mac computers with pieces it designed would start to ship before the end of the year. Current Mac computers use Intel chips. But those computers are probably not going to be discussed on Tuesday, according to a report from Bloomberg. Instead, Apple could save that consequence for a November launch event, which would be Apple’s third of the fall.

In past years, Apple has only officiate at applied one or two fall launch events. But this year’s launches are different — they’re prerecorded and held virtually due to the pandemic. There is also on appetite for Apple launches from customers, media, and fans. Nearly 1.5 million people tuned in to a YouTube livestream closing month to watch Apple executives announce new Apple Watches.