Cooler, faster, cheaper - the new iPhone announcements

After months of speculation and all the rumors making rounds, Apple finally announced the release of its next iPhones - a much advanced iPhone 5S and a cheaper iPhone 5C. Thanks to the leaked images floating the internet, we did have an idea of what Apple was going to announce. But seeing it was something else.

First Apple reiterated the changes they have introduced with the new iOS 7 - updates to Siri, better tones, a faster search interface, one-touch access to settings, photo filters, the list is long. You can get the list of updates released with iOS 7 from our blog post here. Apple also announced the availability of iOS 7 from September 18th.

Here's a list of the highlights from Apple's announcements at the event

The snazzier iPhone 5S

The iPhone 5S is going to be much like the iPhone 5 but with a lot of enhancements - both at the hardware side and the software side. The big additions to the iPhone 5S include

• A fingerprint scanner built into the home button so users can quickly unlock the phone - without a PIN or a password. This, along with the activation lock feature introduced with iOS 7, is a huge step ahead in preventing iPhone data thefts
• The iPhone 5S will come in Slate, White and Gold (or Champagne as Apple calls it) color

The affordable and colorful iPhone 5C

Apple introduced the new low-cost iPhone 5C, which Tim Cook says is "more colorful and fun" than any other iPhone. The 5C is aimed at making the iPhone accessible to larger masses. Apple is finally shedding the exclusivity associated with an iPhone due to higher cost compared to cheaper Android alternatives.

• The iPhone 5C will come in 5 different colors - all bright and cheerful. It has softer curved corners and each phone will come with a color-matched wallpaper
• The 5C has a 4-inch Retina display like the iPhone 5, integrated touch and widescreen video
• What is different is it is made of plastic - but doesn't look like plastic (really?)

Whats new inside the iPhone

As always, Apple has made some significant improvements in whats inside the new iPhones

iPhone 5C

• The 5C has an Apple-designed A6 chip which gives it very fast performance compared to older phones
• The battery is a higher capacity and the phone is more power efficient
• A lot of changes have been made to the camera - the iSight camera is 8MP now and has a 5-element lens
• The FaceTime camera is also HD now and Apple also announced FaceTime audio
• The phones have more LTE bands than any other smartphone which ensures faster internet speed

iPhone 5S

• The 5S has an A7 chip which is 64-bit and one of a kind (all older iPhones were on 32-bit processors)

• A motion coprocessor M7 has also been introduced which continuously measures motion data - accelerometer, gyroscope, compass

• The camera has a larger aperture, a larger sensor area and better picture quality - everyone can become a photographer now

• The flash has been made better, image stabilization has been added and a lot of other features to make your photos better

• Apple has also introduced a burst mode which lets you capture up to 10 frames/second

• The one we are really excited about as users is the Slo-mo. Apple has added an app which lets you shoot videos in slow motion at an amazing 120 FPS! Now that is something!

Both the 5S and 5C will go on sale on 20th September in US, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore and UK

A few shockers

Apple also made a few announcements which weren't really expected and came as a bit of a shock

• Apple is making all iWork apps FREE - Keynote, Pages, Numbers, iPhoto and iMovie. All these apps will be free with iOS 7
• Unlike before, Apple is taking down the iPhone 5 with the release of iPhone 5S and 5C. Now this has never happened before. Even with new iPhones/iPads being announced, the previous ones were in the market. But this time, Apple is taking the iPhone 5 down. Why - we have no idea!

What all this means to you as App Sellers

All the changes and improvements that Apple announced do mean some work for app sellers as well

• Apple devices will now be both 32-bit and 64-bit. All devices except the iPhone 5S have 32-bit processors while the 5S will run both 32-bit and 64-bit apps. This means games and video processing apps will be a lot faster on the iPhone 5S

• The OpenGL support which the iPhone will now provide is something to behold and definitely what we can use to our advantage making the customer interaction much more seamless and fast

• With the introduction of M7 and the CoreMotion API introduced with iOS 7, Apple has made way for a new set of health and fitness apps that can run on the iPhone

If you would like to know how these can be used to make your apps better, get in touch with us today.