Apple has finally unveiled the iPhone 7, and all was pretty much as expected. The most-touted new feature this year is the camera on the iPhone 7 Plus and water resistance for both models. Overall, the iPhone 7 really isn’t that much of an upgrade from the iPhone 6s last year, which is why most of Wall Street expects it to be somewhat of a flop (better than last year but still not very good). The most noticeable difference is that the finish is glossier rather than a matte finish.
iPhone 7 has no headphone jack
The biggest change is, as expected, the lack of a headphone jack. I suppose if Apple was going to drop a huge bomb like this on people, it makes sense to do it in a year when not many people were likely to upgrade. This was such a controversial decision that fans started a petition recently to try to convince the company not to do it, but apparently it was either too late, or Apple management decided that they could force people to like the decision.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities said last week that Apple would offer wireless EarPods (which we now know are officially called “AirPods”) and a Lightning connector, so the announcement doesn’t come as much of a surprise. The AirPods only have a 24-hour battery life, and they’re priced at $160. There’s also an adapter for standard headphones, as Kuo said previously as well.
iPhone 7 now in black with more storage
The iPhone 7 now comes in five color options, two of which are black, interestingly enough. The other three are gold, silver and rose gold, which are the same options that existed before. One is just plain black, and the other is jet black.
Apple also bumped up the storage sizes on the iPhone 7 with the bottom tier now starting at 32GB instead of the 16GB that was previously the bottom tier. The middle tier now has 128GB of storage, while the top tier has 256GB.
The phones also feature a new faster A10 processor. The battery life has been extended through the improved battery. Apple has also added a new pressure sensitive home button to help improve the 3D Touch experience through haptic feedback. Additionally, this year’s phones feature water resistance (but not waterproofing), which doesn’t sound very exciting but could actually be a very good thing. The iPhone 7 lineup is also dust resistant.
iPhone 7 Plus has a dual-lens camera
The iPhone 7 Plus has a dual-lens camera, as has been rumored for quite a long time. The rumor changed from including both the base and Plus variants to just the Plus variant when we started hearing that yield problems with the dual-lens system caused Apple to keep it restricted to the Plus models, although of course we don’t know if this part of the story is true. Analysts have been debating whether the better camera will be enough to convince people to upgrade to the more expensive Plus model, but we’ll have to wait to find out if that happens.
The dual-lens module combines wide-angle and telephoto cameras. Both have 12-megapixel sensors, and together, they’re supposed to be able to snap photos that are of the quality of the photos digital SLR cameras are able to take.
The iPhone 7 has a 7-megapixel front-facing camera and 12-megapixel rear-facing camera. The sensor is also 60% faster and quad LED flashes.
iPhone 7 price, release date
The iPhone 7 becomes available for preorder starting Friday and will land in stores on September 16. The phones start at $649 for the iPhone 7 and $769 for the iPhone 7 Plus.
What does all this mean for Apple stock?
Despite the lack of exciting new features, Investing.com Senior Analyst, Clement Thibault sees a rally of up to 25% as being possible for Apple stock because of how low expectations were going into today’s reveal. Such a high rally could carry the shares to new highs.
“Given Wall Street’s low expectations for Apple and the iPhone 7, the company doesn’t need to hit a home run today,” he said in an email prior to the announcement. “Markets seem to have come to terms with another year of status quo performance as far as the company, its products and its share price are concerned.”
“Giving Apple a pass this year significantly increases the pressure longer-term,” Thibault explained this morning. “With the iPhone 8 release rumored to already be scheduled for next year at this time in order to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the iPhone itself, all of the company’s eggs may be ending up in one basket. Unless Apple plays its hand perfectly going forward, the next release could unintentionally be destructive for the brand, the product and the company.”
