Apple's bid to outflank Android: Tech giant unveils new $99 plastic iPhone AND 'gold-standard' $399 handset with fingerprint scanner
- - The iPhone 5C is a plastic alternative to last year's iPhone 5
- - It comes in five colours including pink, green, white, blue and yellow
- - Phone costs £469 if bought outright but prices will be lower on contract
- - The iPhone 5S comes in three colours including gold, silver and slate
- - A fingerprint scanner is built into the 'home' button of the iPhone 5S
- - Called Touch ID, the scanner lets you buy apps at the touch of a button
- - Prices start at £549 for 16GB going up to £709 for 64GB
- - Cost set to be lower on contract but no announcement has been made
- - Devices can be pre-ordered from Friday and go on sale on 20 September
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In what's been classed as a 'make or break' event for Apple, the tech firm has unveiled a cut-price handset called the iPhone 5C as well as a high-end model called iPhone 5S.
The release of the iPhone 5C marks a step away from Apple's luxe image.
Many believe the move is a desperate bid to poach Samsung buyers, as the Korean company and its plastic, cheaper handsets go from strength to strength.
In what's been classed as a 'make or break' event for Apple, the Californian-based tech firm has unveiled its plastic iPhone 5C that comes in a range of colours and will cost £469.
The iPhone 5S is a modified version of the iPhone 5. It comes in three colours - gold, silver and slate - and was Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Phill Schiller, pictured, claimed it is twice as fast as the current handset
Apple traditionally releases a brand new handset once a year, before releasing a follow-up model with incremental changes the next, for example, the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S.
This year, however, was the first time Apple had been linked to two new handsets at the same event.
And in announcing the new devices, Apple's CEO Tim Cook declared the company would be discontinuing the current iPhone 5 model.
The iPhone 5C has a 4-inch Retina display.
It has the same A6 processor as the current iPhone 5 model, as well as the same 8-megapixel rear camera.
THE IPHONE 5S AND 5S SPECIFICATIONS
THE IPHONE 5C
4-inch Retina display.
A6 processor - same as the iPhone 5.
The battery is slightly larger than it was on the iPhone 5.
It has the same 8-megapixel rear camera and a new FaceTime HD camera.
It supports 'more LTE bands than any other smartphone in the world.'
Dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0
The handset will cost £469 for 16GB and £549 for 32GB when bought outright.
Contract prices may be lower.
THE IPHONE 5S
The handset comes in three colours: gold, silver and slate.
A7 chip is twice as fast as the iPhone 5.
Built-in fingerprint scanner and Touch ID feature unlocks the phone and can be used to purchase apps.
Dual-flash LED camera with 28-megapixel panoramic photos.
The iPhone 5S has 10 hours of talk time and 250 hours of standby.
The 16GB handset will cost £549 up to £709 for 64GB.
Contract prices may be lower.
The FaceTime front-facing camera has been improved to HD, too.
Apple's iPhone 5C is made of polycarbonate plastic and is reinforced with a steel frame, which acts as the phone's antenna.
Although it didn't announce UK pricing at the event, the Apple UK store is showing the iPhone 5C as costing £469 for 16GB and £549 for 32GB if bought outright.
However, it's expected the iPhone 5C will be considerably cheaper when bought through a contract, with prices starting at $99 in the U.S.
The iPhone 5S comes in three colours - slate, gold, and silver - and is made of high-grade aluminium.
According to The Verge, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller called it 'perhaps the most forward thinking phone anyone has ever made' before unveiling the much-rumoured fingerprint scanner built into the phone's 'home' button.
'In securing a handset, the most common way is to set up a passcode. Unfortunately, some people find that's too cumbersome.
'Touch ID uses a key with you have everywhere you go.'
The Touch ID Sensor is 170 microns thin, senses 500 ppi and scans a user's 'sub-epidermal skin layers.'
VIDEO: Apple unveils two new handsets
Apple's CEO Tim Cook, pictured, announced at the event that the firm would be discontinuing the iPhone 5 in favour of its new iPhone 5S, pictured, and iPhone 5C. The iPhone 5S starts at $199 for 16GB, $299 for 32 GB and $399 for 64GB
NEW IPHONES: INITIAL REACTION
Tony Cripps, principal device analyst at Ovum, said: 'Anyone expecting Apple to come truly down market with the iPhone 5C was fooling themselves.
‘It indicates an acceptance that the consumers in the upper reaches of the smartphone mid-market are increasingly looking to distinctive devices of their own, and are not happy to accept cast offs or dumbed-down versions of former flagships.’
Tom Wiggins deputy editor of Stuff Magazine, added: ‘In recent years Apple has been accused of following where it used to lead but the fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5s should change that. It's a genuinely useful addition that people will make use of every single day.’
Ernest Doku, mobiles expert at uSwitch.com, said: ‘Just as the iPad mini lowered the barrier to entry for wannabe tablet owners, the 5C should do the same for smartphone fans wanting a piece of Apple for less.'
However, Matthew Knight, head of innovation at global media agency Carat, wasn't so positive: ‘Apple launches over the years have lost their interest for me.
Jason Jenkins, Editor of CNET, added: ‘With the iPhone 5S, Apple has made a play for a group of people it's lost to Android: geeks. But there’s one big problem with Apple’s geek strategy: the screen size.
'Geeks love the large screens that rival manufacturers offer and, the 4-inch version on the iPhone 5S is still too small for them.’
While Sascha Segan, Lead Mobile Analyst at PCMag.com, said: 'The new fingerprint scanner and improved camera address problems people really have. But the new model doesn't seem to really change the game.'
The ring around the 'home' button acts as a 'detection ring' that turns on the Touch ID sensor and is made from a scratch-resistant material.
Schiller said: 'You can simply touch your home button to unlock your phone' and it can be used to buy apps via iTunes.
Apple's Brit designer, Sir Jonathan Ive added: 'It's not just rampant technology for technology's sake.'
Touch ID works by encrypting the fingerprint, which is secured inside a 'secure enclave' or port.
The print is not available to other software, not is it uploaded to Apple's servers or backed up to iCloud.
It is the first handset to run 64-bit A7 chip and is said to be twice as fast as the iPhone 5.
The graphics are five times faster than the iPhone 5 and the phone was said to have 10 hours of 3G talk time, 10 Hours LTE browsing and up to 250 hours of battery standby.
Elsewhere, the iPhone 5S has 'a new, five-element Apple-designed lens'.
The camera app sets white balance, exposure and creates a 'dynamic local tone map' with 'autofocus matrix metering' in 15 zones automatically.
The flash has two LEDs - one is white and the other is amber.
These LEDs which can be combined to get the right colour balance from the flash.
The camera works by taking multiple photos, combining them for light levels and picking the sharpest one - similar to the feature seen on the Samsung Galaxy S4.
There's additionally a new burst mode of 10 frames per second.
Schiller said: 'It used to be to take better pictures you became a better photographer.
For most of us, we just want to take a picture.'
The phone features a Touch ID Sensor that scans a user's finger print. The ring around the home button is a 'detection ring' that turns on the Touch ID sensor and can be used to unlock the phone and purchase apps. Jonny Ive said: 'It's not just rampant technology for technology's sake'
The iPhone 5S costs $199 for 16GB, $299 for 32 GB and $399 for 64GB in the U.S and £549, £629 and £709 respectively in the UK.
Again, contract prices are expected to be lower.
Both devices can be pre-ordered on 13 September and the handsets go on sale on 20 September.
The new handsets will be shipped with the iOS 7 software, first announced in June.
‘iOS 7 is the latest version, and next month we will ship the 700 millionth iOS device. iOS 7 will quickly become the world’s most popular mobile operating system,' said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering.
‘Virtually overnight hundreds of millions of people will upgrade.'
The software, overseen by Ive, will be available from 18 September for the iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S. The firm added that it will come to older iPhones 'later'.
The Touch ID Sensor (pictured) works by encrypting the fingerprint, which is kept inside a secure enclave. The print is not available to other software and is not uploaded Apple's servers or backed up to iCloud
Apple's colourful iPhone 5C is made of plastic and reinforced with steel that works as an antenna. The battery is slightly larger than it was on the iPhone 5 and it has the same 8-megapixel rear camera
The iPhone 5S will also be made available in China at the same time as other countries for the first time ever.
Apple recently lost smartphone market share to main rival Samsung, dropping to 14 per cent - its lowest for three years - because of ‘lacklustre’ iPhone 5 sales and tougher competition from rivals.
Experts believe that tonight's event will be 'make or break' for the Cupertino-based firm.
Jason Jenkins, editor of CNET UK told MailOnline: ' People are increasingly choosing rival smartphones that have larger screens, are more powerful and are cheaper.
Apple's iPhone 5C, pictured here being announced by Schiller, is made of 'polycarbonate' but is reinforced with steel that acts as an antenna. The handset will cost $99 for 16GB and $199 for 32GB. UK pricing is yet to be announced.
'Apple seems happy with that, as it makes more money per phone than its rivals: it doesn't need to sell more mobiles than everyone else to win the smartphone war.
'To get round this, Apple has relied until now on announcing a new model and simply making the previous year's cheaper. 'But at some point that strategy isn't going to work so well, and it's going to have to release a model that's specifically designed to tempt budget buyers.'
In the year since Apple unveiled its iPhone 5 handset, for example, Samsung has released or announced 16 new models in its Galaxy range including the popular Samsung Galaxy S4 and S4 Mini.
Craig Federighi, pictured, introduced the new iOS 7 software in June. It will be released to handsets on 18 September. Federighi recapped the features at the annual event because Apple's new handsets will be shipped with the new operating system
Each of the best-selling Galaxy models feature plastic casing, which ultimately makes them cheaper to produce than Apple's aluminimum and glass handsets.
Analysts claimed Apple would be looking to tap into this emerging market, which is particularly prevalent in China, with a lower-cost, plastic iPhone 5C.
This was evident in Apple's choice to run an event at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino alongside mirror events in Beijing, Tokyo and Berlin.
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