The annual iPhone launch should not be an event. Smartphones are ubiquitous and Apple’s version is 15 years old. Slightly bigger screens with a longer battery life are nice but not groundbreaking. The company’s most interesting products — driverless cars and mixed reality headsets — remain under wraps.
Yet Apple’s knack for showmanship remains as impressive as ever. On YouTube, more than 2.5mn people tuned in to watch. Rival hardware marketing events do not attract this level of interest. Apple’s products are still outrageously popular. Around the world, over 1.8bn of its products are in use.
Its share of the US smartphone market (including second-hand handsets) has climbed above 50 per cent, overtaking Android. This year the US market will contain almost 125mn iPhones, up 3 per cent on last year, according to estimates from market research company Insider Intelligence. New releases will lift that total.