Innovation to take back seat in launch of new iPhone

The new iPhone is expected to include features like high-resolution displays

When Apple launches its much-anticipated 10th anniversary iPhone this fall, it will offer an unwitting lesson in how much the smartphone industry it pioneered has matured.

The new iPhone is expected to include new features such as high-resolution displays, wireless charging and 3-D sensors. Rather than representing major breakthroughs, however, most of the innovations have been available in competing phones for several years.

Apple’s relatively slow adoption of new features both reflects and reinforces the fact smartphone customers are holding onto their phones longer. Timothy 

Arcuri, an analyst at Cowen & Co, believes upwards of 40 per cent of iPhones on the market are more than two years old, a historical high.

That is a big reason why investors have driven Apple shares to an all-time high. There is pent-up demand for a new iPhone, even if it does not offer breakthrough technologies.

It is not clear whether Apple deliberately held off on packing some of the new features into the current iPhone 7, which has been criticised for a lack of differentiation from its predecessor. Apple declined to comment on the upcoming product.

Still, the development and roll-out of the anniversary iPhone suggest Apple’s product strategy is driven less by technological innovation than by consumer upgrade cycles and Apple’s own business and marketing needs.

New California headquarters to open in April

Apple’s sprawling new campus, dubbed “Apple Park,” will open in April, the iPhone maker said on Wednesday. Although the first wave of employees will begin moving into the new Cupertino, California, headquarters this spring, it will take about six months for all of the 12,000-plus workers to make the transition, Apple said. Construction will run through the summer.

Apple also said the 1,000-seat theater at its futuristic headquarters will be named for its late co-founder, Steve Jobs, who helped design the 175-acre campus before his death in 2011.