Since 2011, Apple has held a ‘Special Event’ in September where the latest iPhone is announced after a number of strategic leaks and rumours are circulated to build excitement for the latest product. In typical Apple style, their non-advertising approach to marketing works. I was up at 3am and as soon as the event finished I was writing this article!

Not surprisingly, most of the rumours that have been circulated over the last few weeks were correct. After an opening to an event that was worthy of an opening scene of a Mission Impossible movie (complete with MI theme music) Tim Cook (Apple CEO) was delivered a high security package containing…the clicker! He walked on stage at the Steve Jobs Theater (excuse the American spelling) to rapturous applause. Every statement and announcement is followed by rapturous applause and a few “yeahs” and “woohoos” to the point that I am convinced they have professionals at the event specifically to make these sounds.

Before the actual product announcements, there was some self-congratulations from Tim. The Apple stores across the world are currently at the stage where 500 million people come through the doors each year and Apple is about to hit the milestone of 2 billion iOS devices (iPod; iPhone; iPad) across the world. These are staggering numbers that are hard to comprehend.

When it came time to announce products, the Apple Watch Series 4 was the first one to hit the screen. The Apple Watch is now the number one selling watch in the world. From any company in any category. Not bad for a product that didn’t exist until three years ago. The new Series 4 has a display that is pushed closer to the edge to give a larger screen (over 30 per cent larger) without an increase in physical size and the unit itself has been made thinner. Many minor improvements have been made. The speaker is 50 per cent louder. The digital crown has haptic feedback. There is a faster processor. There were also two major enhancements. The watch now has the ability to perform an electrocardiogram (ECG). It wasn’t that long ago that wearable fitness companies said that a watch could never deliver heart rates without a chest band. Now we have a complete ECG. The additional processing power allows a better accelerometer which allows the watch to detect a fall. If the watch detects a fall and then no activity for one minute, a call to emergency services is automatically triggered. The Apple Watch Series 4 will be available from 21 September.

The announcement that everyone waits on is the latest iPhone – or increasingly we are seeing multiple announcements. Yesterday we saw three new iPhones announced. The iPhone Xs which is the same basic shape as the current iPhone X with a 5.8 inch OLED screen. The iPhone Xs Max is the latest entrant in the “mine is bigger than yours” smartphone war. This boasts a massive 6.5 inch OLED edge to edge screen (noting the new Samsung Note has a 6.4 inch screen). 

The Xs has had an improvement in dust and water resistance to IP68 which is a rating of 2m of water for 30 minutes. An improved processor (with 6.9 billion transistors) will deliver faster performance and the phones will now come in three memory sizes: 64GB; 256GB and a massive 512GB. That is a lot of cute photos of your cat. An additional colour has been added so it is now available in three colours. The rumoured dual-SIM was also delivered – ish… The software on the phone has the ability to have one physical SIM and then a second eSIM. That relies on the carrier supporting the eSIM and at the moment the Australian carriers don’t support an eSIM on your phone (although they do offer eSIM support for the Watch).