Apple introduce iPhone 6 and Apple Watch

FOR those loyal consumers waiting patiently in tents and sleeping bags outside one of its flagship London stores, it was the news they had been waiting for.

Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces the new Apple Watch . Picture: AP

Apple last night unveiled the latest incarnations of its iPhone, alongside the Apple Watch, its much-anticipated debut into the smartwatch market.

The US firm revealed the new devices at an event in Cupertino, California. CEO Tim Cook said: “Today we’re launching the biggest advancement in the history of iPhone.”

The iPhone 6 Plus has a 5.5-inch screen, compared to the 4-inch screen of the current generation iPhone 5s. Apple also introduced the iPhone 6, which is also larger, with a 4.7-inch screen. Both devices have “ion-strengthened glass” screens.

Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller announcees the new iPhone 6. Picture: Getty

And the firm unveiled the Apple Watch, a wearable device tethered to the iPhone that will combine health and fitness tracking with communications.

The phones will start being shipped out in the US on 19 September, with advance orders to open this Friday. Starting prices will be comparable to those in the past – $199 (£123) with a two-year contract for the iPhone 6 with 16 gigabytes of storage.

However, the step-up models will have double the previous memories, costing $299 (£185) for 64 gigabytes and $399 (£247) for 128 gigabytes. The iPhone 6 Plus phones will cost $100 (£62) more at each configuration.

Apple also confirmed a new processor chip, the A8, which will power new apps and games.

Fans of the company began to queue outside its store in New York’s Fifth Avenue last week, while a handful of devoted consumers erected tents at the Apple Store in London’s Regent Street yesterday morning.

The launch of the Apple Watch launch represents a welcome boost for the firm amid speculation it was struggling to emerge from the shadows cast by the death of Steve Jobs, its co-founder. CEO Mr Cook has been under pressure to introduce an innovative new range to a market that was seeing Apple’s dominance challenged by firms such as Samsung, Google and HTC.

The new devices are the brainchild of Sir Jonathan Ive, Apple’s London-born senior vice-president of design.

Technology analyst Tim Bajarin said: “There is incredible pent-up demand for a larger screen iPhone.” Duncan Bell, operations editor at UK-based gadget magazine T3, was less convinced: “I’m pretty amazed they’ve dumped the 4-inch iPhone – it was hugely successful – presumably at least in part because all its main rivals have much bigger screens.”

Ernest Doku, uSwitch.com tech expert, said of the Apple Watch: “It has an elegance and luxuriousness which has eluded the efforts of other manufacturers. However, the fact that users will also need an iPhone with their watch, and it’s therefore not a standalone gadget, was glossed over fairly rapidly.”

The technology is expected to be accompanied by a mobile wallet feature that taps into one of the 800 million credit card account numbers which users store on Apple’s remote servers to buy songs, videos and apps from its iTunes stores.

Apple’s latest mobile software, iOS8, includes new features HealthKit and HomeKit, which effectively turn Apple’s products into a suite of “digital servants”, allowing homeowners to turn on a coffee machine or switch the lights off at night.

The new operating system is expected to be released free later this month.