Apple iPhone 15 and Watch Series 9: A Lot of Improvements at the Same Prices
Even small iterative improvements on a product used by hundreds of millions of people dozens or even hundreds of times a day are meaningful. This year the changes may be iterative, but they’re not all small, and there are an awful lot of them.
iPhone 15
As widely anticipated, the iPhone is moving away from its proprietary Lightning port over to USB-C. For most users, this is more of a hassle than a benefit, but it was inevitable thanks to EU mandates and will not negatively impact sales. The 30-pin iPod connector was embedded on hotel clock radios and in airplane seats and yet people still bought the iPhone 5 (and the iPhone 6 in even bigger numbers). USB-C will make technology enthusiasts and power users genuinely happy; most of them have multiple devices with USB-C already. With the right cable (not included), the iPhone 15 Pro models get reasonably fast USB 3.0 data speeds to transfer all those high-resolution pictures and videos to a PC, Mac, or iPad for editing. Apple will happily sell you new cables and dongles, though so will Anker and Monoprice and everyone else. Apple is also updating the AirPods Pro with a USB-C connector and wired EarPods as well.
The iPhone 15 comes in a soft pink (among other colors) and gets the Dynamic Island that app developers have embraced -- it may look like a gimmick, but it's a really useful user interface design. The display is now a Super Retina XDR OLED with and higher peak brightness for Dolby Vision HDR and outdoor viewing.
The iPhone 15 gets a new 48 MP camera and lots of computational photography improvements under the hood including the ability to add portrait after the fact without selecting it first. Apple is using the middle section of the sensor to provide 2x zoom, even on the non-Pro iPhone 15. This is not the first time I’ve seen this technique – Realme is using it on its $300 11 Pro 5G in India – but the camera really matters to consumers, and getting 2x effective zoom on an iPhone without paying for an iPhone Pro will be well received.
After missing a processor bump last year, the base model iPhones now run on the A16 Bionic (last year's Pro processor). It also gets Qualcomm’s latest modem and improved local Find My thanks to a 2nd gen UWB chip. Apple does not talk about the modem much, but as carriers roll out new network capabilities, getting an upgraded modem can improve not just data speed, but coverage as well.
Speaking of improved coverage, when Apple introduced Emergency SOS via Satellite on the iPhone 14 we noted that it would save lives, and Apple proved that this was the case with tearjerking video segments at the start of the keynote. Apple is now expanding the service to Spain and Switzerland as it opens up emergency service relay centers (14 countries are now supported). New for the iPhone 15 (and coming to the iPhone 14 as well), Apple’s satellite capabilities can be used for roadside assistance when all you need is a tire or some fuel, not first responders. Apple is kicking off roadside assistance via satellite in the U.S. with AAA; there is no charge for relaying the message, so for AAA members it is effectively free …at least for the first two years. When I asked Apple what happens next year when the iPhone 14 will be two years old, Apple responded that they'll tell me next year. We’ll see. Monetizing Emergency SOS via Satellite may be challenging – is Apple really going to require you to subscribe in order to call 911? Apple could presumably charge per use, but someone is bound to die because they’re afraid of receiving a bill, and per-use billing is unlikely to cover the operating costs of the service in any case. Roadside assistance is a service that consumers already expect to pay for, so there should be more leeway to charge either the consumer or the service partner there.
iPhone 15 Pro, Pro Max
The iPhone 15 Pro gets a new titanium shell that is merged with an aluminum subframe for easier repairability. Apple may have whined a lot along the way, but now all of its new phones now have easily removed rear panels for repair or battery access. Now that Apple has figured out how to adjust its design and supply chain to accommodate it, Apple is backing Right to Repair legislation. This improves end of life recycling and should improve iPhone resale values, too.
That titanium is really pretty, although the blue and dark grey are awfully hard to tell apart in indoor lighting. All of Apple’s new phones have more rounded edges so they don’t dig into your hands if used without a case, but the finish on the titanium models is particularly nice. Apple invests ridiculous attention to detail in its materials and industrial design, and it shows.
The Pro models replace the toggle switch with an Action Button. This still defaults to toggling silent mode on and off, but power users can program it with common options or go nuts with their own Shortcuts. The Action Button is not a must-have feature for most users, and Apple was smart to put it on the Pro models where the potential additional complexity will be welcomed. For that reason, this may a Pro feature that does not trickle down to non-Pro models in the future.
iPhone 15 Pro gets A17 Pro silicon, using TSMC's 3nm process, with 19 billion transistors. Apple won’t be the only company with 3nm chips – MediaTek sent out a press release last week touting that its 2024 flagship SoC will be 3nm – but Apple Silicon is the first to market. This lead could be significant, as Apple has bought up a lot of TSMC’s capacity. The A17 Pro is faster across every measure including faster efficiency cores, neural processor, and GPU. There’s also an AV1 decoder in there which seems completely unnecessary, but Apple told me that it will help with media streaming, especially in markets like China. But if you wanted to run Handbrake on it to transcode videos, you probably could.
Like Qualcomm and MediaTek, Apple is now adding hardware accelerated ray tracing to the GPU on the A17 Pro. This capability may actually be used in more than just a handful of games and demos: Apple says that AAA PC and console games like Assassin’s Creed and Resident Evil Village are coming to the iPhone (and presumably the iPad Pro, which should get a version of this processor shortly).
The camera system has been a key reason to upgrade to the Pro line, and the iPhone 15 is no different. Apple took its time, but it is now joining the high zoom range party with the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Apple is offering 5x optical zoom using a “tetra prism design” (not periscope) on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. (Apple said that it could only include the system on the iPhone Pro Max rather than the iPhone 15 Pro because of the additional size.) Increased zoom is great not just for professional photographers, but also for parents taking pictures of their kids on a sports field or school stage. Photos taken on the iPhone 15 Pro Max across different focal ranges and in challenging lighting conditions looked fantastic in head-to-head comparisons showed me during a briefing at Apple Park; I look forward to seeing how it performs with an analyst at the shutter rather than professional photographers and imaging engineers.
As I predicted, with an upcoming software update, the iPhone 15 will also be able to take spatial video for playback on the Apple Vision Pro.
Pricing Stability
Despite rumors that prices were going up, Apple kept pricing the same as last year despite the improvements and the inflationary environment. Each individual change to the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus is relatively minor, but collectively they add up to a considerably more competitive phones than last year – at the same prices as last year. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is only available starting at the $1199 256GB configuration, but that is the same price that configuration sold for last year. It’s also a more realistic minimum configuration for people buying a super-premium phone. Apple’s price on memory has likely dropped, giving it the ability to add so much new feature content without hurting margins.
In another nod to affordability, Apple is explicitly promoting carrier deals on iPhone this year. Apple seems to have research suggesting that consumers are skeptical that these deals are real, but you really can get $800 - $1000 off the price of a new iPhone if you have a three-year-old iPhone to trade in and are willing to sign up for (or remain on) the carriers’ more expensive service plans.
Apple Watch Series 9, Ultra 2
Apple is already the world’s largest wearables company for both audio and watches. The Watch Series 9 pulls further ahead with new Apple S9 silicon that is being primarily employed to improve the interface and enable on-device Siri. This is dangerous for Apple’s phone competitors and to the health of Google’s Android, because the iPhone-dependent Apple Watch (happily) locks consumers into the iOS ecosystem, making it extremely difficult to get them to switch to Android. Qualcomm makes excellent wearable chips, but they are, by definition not tuned to a specific vendor’s use case. Worse, they just don’t seem to make it into mainstream smartwatches quickly enough. Using CPU and GPU cycles to improve transparency and animation effects on a smartwatch may not seem like a big deal, but improvements to the user experience are important, making the competition look less sophisticated.
Having Siri on-device with the Watch Series 9 should mean that Siri actually works a lot more often than it does today. It also allows Apple to close the loop on privacy and lets consumers use Siri for sensitive Health data. Dictation accuracy should be improved as well.
The most innovative feature using the neural engine of the S9 is Double Tap. Apple didn’t say it, so I will: this feature is magical. Double Tap is a finger pinching gesture that lets you select whatever the primary action is on any Apple Watch app without actually touching the button. Apple Vision Pro uses pinch gestures in its user interface by putting cameras all around your face and watching what you do with your hands; Apple Watch Series 9 does it by tracking the blood flow to your wrist along with the motion from the accelerometer and gyroscope. I tested this feature in the demo area after the keynote and it works.
One final way that Apple’s vertical integration of silicon helps its hardware is display brightness. The Apple Watch Series 9 uses the same display technology as the Series 8, but the new silicon is more efficient, and Apple has more control over power output. That lets the Apple Watch Series 9 hit 2000 nits of brightness for outdoor visibility and go all the way down to 1 nit for bedside use and in movie theaters.
The Apple Watch Ultra was a big hit last year: outdoor and diving enthusiasts bought it for its functionality, everyone else bought it for the longer battery life. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 also gets the S9 chip, only here it can drive the display up to 3000 nits. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 should get the same battery life as the original: up to 32 hours of battery or 72 in low power mode. The case is now made of 95% recycled titanium.
The Apple Watch SE is staying in the lineup, and like the phones, all the prices are the same as last year.
Sustainability: Not An Afterthought
Apple has made significant strides in its 2030 zero carbon sustainability goals but it is having a tough time convincing activists that it is sincere, and persuading consumers that they should care. Apple is still trying to sell you new and improved devices when you are ready to buy them, but it is trying to make that purchase have essentially no environmental impact. Rather than just list slides with how much recycled material is in each product, Apple made a funny video with Octavia Spenser playing "mother nature" to make its sustainability efforts accessible while actually diving into some of the details. This video landed with me, but the reaction online was mixed. There are definitely segments of the U.S. population that consider ecological improvement a political stance - for better or worse.
I met with Apple to discuss its efforts and pushed back on some of its claims, but Apple is putting in the work. It helps that while these practices can cost enormous amounts of money to initiate, when running at scale they can reduce costs and improve access to materials and energy. The key is not just that Apple’s stores and offices are running on clean energy, but that Apple is pushing its suppliers to build and assemble its products with carbon neutral practices as well. Apple is farthest along on its watches; if you get one of its new sport loop bands made of recycled yarn, you can buy a fully carbon neutral Apple Watch today. It's impressive. More impressive is the use not only of recycled aluminum (which can be less expensive than virgin aluminum), recycled titanium, and 100% recycled copper, is the use of 100% recycled cobalt in the new iPhone and Apple Watch batteries. Mining for cobalt is not only environmentally damaging, but often involves human rights abuses. Kudos.
Apple is moving away from using leather in any of its accessories because leather makes it harder to hit its carbon neutrality goals. Instead, Apple is substituting a bunch of different reusable and fabric-based alternatives in its watch bands, phone cases, and AirTag holders. Apple’s own fine woven material is supposed to feel like suede. It doesn’t. It’s a really nice, premium fabric, and many people will love it, but it does not feel like leather, nor will it gain a patina over time. Third party suppliers will happily fill the void. The recycled material Watch bands from Hermes and Nike Watch look and feel premium and suitably on-brand for each.
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