The crowd at Apple's new "spaceship" headquarters saw new smartphones - including a premium version priced at $999 (priced at Rs. 89,000 in India) - as the company commemorated its 10th anniversary of the iPhone.
Apple[1] opened the event asking the audience to cover their screens as an audio clip of Steve Jobs[2] played. Tim Cook[3], Apple's chief executive, said that it was fitting that Jobs opened the theater - named after him - where the event is taking place.
"His greatest expression of his appreciation for humanity would not be a singular product, but rather it would be Apple itself," he said.
The bar is very high for Apple. Most of its revenue is generated through the smartphone. Cook promised that the company's new phones would make a splash by defining the future of the smartphone.
iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus
About midway through Apple's event, Apple's head of marketing Phil Schiller showed off the upgrades to the main iPhone line[4]. Clad in an aluminium and glass skin that comes in Silver, Space Gray, and Gold, the new devices are speedier with sharper screens and better battery efficiency. The phones will also accommodate wireless charging. Schiller said chargers will be made by third-party vendors and appear at partner coffee shops and retail stores, as well as some new cars.
The new smartphones have revamped cameras that will use a feature called "portrait lighting" that will automatically optimise the lighting in your photos. The cameras also have substantially improved slo-mo video recording.
Schiller took some time to tout the smartphones' ability to do more in augmented reality -- which is expected to be a key area of growth for...