Wired
> Video loading, please wait… Autoplay
play “Thirteen Fragrance” is here?Apple will open a new product launch conference on September 15 forward and backward
As Apple’s latest series of iPhone 13 is about to be released, Apple has unknowingly gone through more than ten years, and undoubtedly, the impact on consumers and the world in these ten years has been huge. Although the “toothpaste” update of the iPhone has been criticized by consumers in recent years, the iPhone is still the dominant player in the industry, and the price has remained high. Today, let’s take a brief look at the development and price changes of the iPhone from the first generation to the present (the following reference prices are the starting price of this version).
iPhone (US$599, approximately RMB 3870)
On January 9, 2007, the enlightenment of iPhone development, a prelude to Apple’s ten-year glorious history kicked off, and Jobs officially released the iPhone in San Francisco. 2007 was still the era of keyboards. The iPhone’s 3.5-inch capacitive touch screen, round aluminum body, and a physical button with only a home button made it stand out from the same stereotyped mobile phones that year and become the most popular mobile phone. At the iPhone conference that year, Jobs said: “We are five years ahead of other mobile phones.” This sentence has really become a reality from the beginning to the end.
iPhone3G/iPhone3Gs (US$199, about RMB 1285)
The two models were released on June 9, 2008 and June 8, 2009. iPhone3G abandoned the aluminum chassis and switched to polycarbonate. The material changes have improved the signal strength and the ability to receive signals. In addition to 3G networks and materials, iPhone3G also added the AppStore concept to the system for the first time, which is an important milestone in the history of mobile phone software development.
The S in iPhone3Gs stands for “speed”. Since then, the iPhone “S” upgrade law has been opened, that is, this year you will get a newly designed mobile phone, and next year you will see the same body but with better performance. Good phone.
iPhone4 (US$199, about RMB 1285)
Released on June 7, 2010 and October 4, 2011, respectively, as the posthumous works of Jobs, these two products are regarded as eternal classics by many fruit fans. The iPhone4 is covered with flat glass on the front and back, and uses stainless steel to surround the phone as an antenna. This industrial design caused a sensation at the time. In addition to the change in appearance, iPhone4 has another feature is the retina display-RetinaDisplay. The display pixel of the Retina screen is 326ppi. Because the human eye cannot distinguish a single pixel at 300ppi, this means that the iPhone4’s pictures and text look clear and sharp, which is comparable to printed matter.
The meaning of “s” in iPhone4s is “Siri”. When Siri is activated, users can make calls and create alarms by voice. At the time, this was a true mobile phone voice assistant.
iPhone5 (US$199)/iPhone5s (US$199)/iPhone5c (US$99)
iPhone5 broke the 3.5-inch obsession and raised the screen to 4.0 inches. In addition, the back of the fuselage is made of stainless steel, which improves the texture and is 2 mm thinner than the iPhone 4S, making it the thinnest smartphone at the time. The appearance of iPhone5s is basically the same as that of iPhone5. The only change may be that its Home button has a metal ring, which also means that Apple’s first fingerprint sensor-TouchID has been applied.
iPhone6 (US$199)/iPhone6Plus (US$299)
Released on September 9, 2014, the first dual flagship, equipped with a 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and a 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, has finally caught up with Android in screen size. Apple broke their tradition of releasing only one flagship iPhone and two iPhones. Apple claims that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are the biggest advancements in the history of the iPhone, including two that use 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch Retina HD displays, and use a new ultra-thin seamless design innovation technology.
iPhone6s (US$199)/iPhone6sPlus (US$299)
The two models were released on September 9, 2015, and the single “rose gold” color scheme became the focus of everyone’s discussion. Phone6s/6Plus has not changed in appearance, but the hardware has been improved a lot: a 12-megapixel camera, support for 4K video recording, and a major change in IOS9.
Apple’s iPhone6S did not bring much surprise to many people. Every odd-numbered year has produced the’S’ variant of last year’s mobile phone, providing some upgrades for the mobile phone, retaining the same design and chassis. The iPhone 6S is almost identical to the iPhone 6 in 2014, and we can hardly tell the difference between the two in our hands.
iPhoneSE ($399)
Released on March 21, 2016. Apple uses the SE suffix for naming, which is different from previous model naming. This is the first iPhone device without a number in its name. The phone is based on an upgraded version of the iPhone 5S released in 2013. SE is the English abbreviation of “specialedition”, the meaning of this English phrase is “special edition”, in simple terms, iPhoneSE represents an Apple special edition iPhone, mainly used to describe the screen size of this iPhone.
iPhone7 (US$649)/iPhone7Plus (US$769)
This is the time for Apple to adopt waterproof mobile phone technology for the first time. Both iPhone7 and iPhone7Plus have IP67 protection rating, which means you can immerse your phone in water for a few minutes or longer without worrying about it being damaged. Perhaps the biggest element of iPhone7 and iPhone7Plus is that Apple has bid farewell to the 3.5mm headphone jack.
iPhone8 (US$699)/iPhone8Plus (US$799)
It was released on September 13, 2017. I don’t know if it’s to reflect the iPhone X, the iPhone 8 has not changed much compared to the previous generation. Everyone will think it is better called the iPhone 7s.
iPhoneX (US$999)/iPhoneXR (US$749)
Although three iPhones were released in 2017, in the view of the old company, iPhoneX is the product Apple wants to launch this year.
iPhoneX can be regarded as the biggest change of iPhone in recent years, completely canceling the Home button and upgrading the screen to a full screen, making the overall appearance of iPhoneX look more integrated.
Because there is no Home button, TouchID is also abandoned by Apple and replaced by FaceID as a brand new unlocking method. Although Apple has repeatedly stated that FaceID is safer and easier to use than TouchID, in practice, FaceID is still not applicable at certain times. For example, when playing with a mobile phone while lying on your side, FaceID can hardly recognize your face squeezed by a pillow.
iPhoneX is a mobile phone launched by Apple on its tenth anniversary, heralding the direction of Apple’s future mobile phones, and in a sense, it also represents a kind of reincarnation.
Apple also launched a more affordable, more colorful iPhoneXR, with six bright colors and slightly simplified specifications.
iPhoneXS (US$999)/iPhoneXSMax (US$1099)
Released on September 12, 2018, the only change in the iPhone XS series is the performance improvement, and the first three colors of gold, silver, and space gray are released in the same way as in previous years. iPhoneXS has only been incrementally upgraded with iPhoneX, improved rear camera, new golden surface and more power under the hood. iPhoneXSMax is Apple’s next leap after iPhone6Plus, the largest iPhone in history, providing a huge 6.5-inch display.
iPhone11 (US$749)/iPhone11Pro (US$1149)/iPhone11ProMax (US$1249)
Released on September 10, 2019, the Pro suffix was introduced for the first time to emphasize the’high-end’ and’professional’ of the two flagship phones. However, Guofan did not buy it. Compared with the previous generation, the only change in the iPhone 11 series is the camera, which uses a wide-angle + ultra-wide-angle lens combination, which has a larger and wider viewing range.
iPhone12mini ($729)/iPhone12 ($829)/iPhone12Pro ($999)/iPhone12ProMax ($1099)
This is the first time Apple has launched four new iPhones of different sizes and models.
They have also changed quite a lot-relying on the new design, the four iPhones have broken away from the rounded bezels that have been used in the past 7 years, and have returned to the tough era. Not only the appearance has changed, but the screen, performance, camera and even charging methods have all been improved for the iPhone 12.
Apple’s reason for price increases is that, in addition to better components and new designs, this year also has more 5G and screen improvements, and it should also want to make room for the more “low-end” 12mini.
iPhone13 series price prediction
Judging from the news, the four models of the iPhone13 series will maintain the same design style as the four models of the iPhone12 series. The main changes will be reflected in the rear camera module and the color matching of the body. There is no doubt that the performance of the iPhone 13 series has been upgraded. Just like 6s vs. 6, XS vs. X, the data seems to be only a little bit stronger, but the actual experience is significantly different.
The price of iPhone 13 may be the same as that of iPhone 12, or even lower. Apple’s iPhone12 series includes four phones at four prices, with even greater differences between operators and storage configurations. At the time of launch, the baseline iPhone12 carrier model price was US$799, an increase of US$100 over the 2019 iPhone11, mainly due to the addition of 5G support. Since the iPhone 13 is not expected to have such a major technological upgrade, analysts predict that the price structure in 2021 will be similar to that of the iPhone 12 series.
There is some speculation that Apple may consider lowering the price of its next mobile phone series. Several competitors have rushed to catch up in the economic downturn under the epidemic and released more affordable models in 2020, such as Samsung’s Galaxy S20FE and Google Pixel5: the prices of both are the same as the iPhone 12 Mini, but they are about $100 cheaper than the iPhone 12 . The newly released Samsung Galaxy S21 also has a lower price, starting at $200 lower than the previous generation.
In addition, Tianfeng Securities Guo Mingchi also predicted that this year Apple may launch a 6.7-inch iPhone priced under US$900 (approximately RMB 5,800), setting the lowest price record for an iPhone of the same size.