your current location is：Home > TechnologyHomeTechnology

Apple’s autumn conference under the name of “Super Prospective” kicked off.

　　The annual new product night has become a "carnival night" for global consumer electronics. In 2022, when demand is declining sharply, Apple's conference is like a stimulant in a sluggish market, and it is destined to be a landmark event in the current consumer market. The outside world is eagerly expecting the giants to bring back confidence, and the attention continues to be high.

　　At this conference, Apple iterated three major products: mobile phones, watches and wireless headphones. The iPhone is bound to attract the most attention. Apple has released a total of four models, namely the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max, with prices starting at 5,999 yuan, 6,999 yuan, 7,999 yuan, and 8,999 yuan. Compared with the same model of iPhone 13, the starting price of Apple's new phone has not increased, but this time there is no mini, and a plus version has been added, which still brings a lot of pressure to Android phones in the high-end market.

　　In terms of innovative technology, compared to the hotly discussed black technology of satellite communication, the UI structure of the Pro version of Smart Island has attracted more extensive discussions. A senior UI designer commented to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter: "Apple launched the Smart Island UI structure, which is not UI design in the traditional software sense, but an integrated framework design that combines Apple's software, hardware and system. At the software level, software manufacturers can expand their own UI interaction based on this structure. Although there is no relevant UI interaction specification yet, Apple will definitely provide UI control development support."

　　He further stated that at the system level, system-level applications will definitely take the lead in supporting the interaction design of the UI controls, and provide classic applications and interaction methods to drive the frequency of use of the component and improve user experience. At the hardware level, the hardware structure and industrial design of this component are believed to have a relatively long-term development roadmap to support the integrated design of upper-layer interactions, including the regulatory layout of cameras and further interactive upgrades of Smart Island in the future.

　　In addition to the iPhone, the Apple Watch has been updated to Series 8, and the new product line Apple Watch Ultra has been launched, which is a super sports watch designed for lovers of outdoor exploration and adventure. AirPods Pro uses an upgraded H2 chip, which is more intelligent in various sound effects adjustment.

　　Although people often say that Apple lacks innovation, at today's press conference, Apple continued to innovate in core technologies and details such as mobile phone chips, photography systems, UI design, and materials. Among the many uncertainties in the market, Apple still brings relatively stable expectations and certainties to the global electronics industry, and some even believe that it is the "ballast stone" of the mass consumer goods industry.

　　Smart Island, Satellite Communications, and 4-nanometer chips all come together

　　First look at the configuration and new technology of the mobile phone.

　　On the chip, the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are equipped with an A16 bionic chip, which has about 16 billion transistors and adopts TSMC's 4-nanometer process technology. The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus continue to use the A15 chip.

　　According to Apple, A16 has improved the energy efficiency, display function and imaging technology of mobile phones. The chip has a 6-core CPU, and the computing power of the neural network engine is close to 17 trillion calculations per second, which better supports computational photography, and analyzes and optimizes pixel by pixel. photo.

　　The screen interaction design has become a new focus. The iPhone 14 series maintains the notch screen, and the iPhone 14 Pro series cancels the notch screen and replaces it with the "pill screen" predicted before the conference. The redesign of the front camera frees up more display space, and Keep the top border at a distance.

iPhone 14

iPhone14 Pro

　　In addition, Apple has designed a new UI structure for the "Pill", named Dynamic Island. According to different types of information reminders, the dynamic island on the interface will change its shape, and its length can be stretched and retracted, and its length can be changed. will also display the app's icon.

　　Calls, songs and other information will pop up from the top in an eye-catching way, and the software and hardware are coordinated and handled ingeniously. In addition, the iPhone 14 series has added an all-weather display function, and the screen can always display the lock screen screen under the energy-saving technology.

　　Apple's interaction design and specifications have always led the industry trend, and Apple's UI interaction design has always been an integration of the trinity. Under a relatively complete system, there have been major breakthroughs and changes at the product level, which also highlights Apple's Enterprising spirit.

　　The aforementioned UI designer said: "This must be a development roadmap for software, hardware, and system integration. It is difficult for ordinary Android manufacturers to integrate development planning for these three components to a high degree of integration like Apple, because they are divided into three parts. They belong to different development subjects. The upgrade of the UI design is fundamentally different from the previous version. Since it is not a simple software level upgrade, it needs to be accompanied by a hardware upgrade to support the UI design, so it is necessary to buy a new iPhone. In order to obtain this performance, and allow users to obtain a differentiated experience, distinguish the user groups who buy new phones. Every time Apple seems to be upgrading the software, it is actually upgrading the hardware, and every time there is a difference that can be seen and worth showing. , which has played a key role in driving sales.”

　　At the same time, the iPhone 14 has added two new safety features. One is to detect car accidents. Through the new high dynamic range gyroscope, dual-core acceleration sensor and other devices, the mobile phone will automatically call for emergency assistance in the event of a crash.

　　The second is the hot satellite communication. When you are in the wild where the base station cannot cover, you can ask for SOS help by connecting to the satellite. Due to the very limited bandwidth with satellite connections, a true satellite phone requires a bulky antenna. To solve the problem, Apple designed and manufactured custom components and specific software for connectivity. It also developed a custom short-text compression algorithm that tripled the average file size of messages, which can be sent in less than 15 seconds. a message.

　　In addition to sending messages via short text, Apple can also receive messages, but the way is to provide simple emergency rescue options for users to choose from, so that conversations do not take too long to transfer. Apple has spent years implementing this feature, and it plans to roll out in November, starting with the US and Canada.

　　In terms of imaging, Apple has optimized aperture, low-light environment, front-facing camera, and computational photography, which is consistent with the general direction of Android phone photography evolution. For example, the iPhone 14 uses a front-facing TrueDepth lens with a larger aperture, which enhances low-light environment photography, and in Apple's deep-integrated computational photography technology, the new light image engine preserves more photo details.

　　The main camera of the iPhone 14 standard version is 12 million, while the Pro version is upgraded to a 48-megapixel wide-angle main camera, supplemented by a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle and 12-megapixel telephoto, upgraded to the second-generation displacement optical image stabilization, 3x Light change + 15x digital zoom, and the iPhone 14 Pro has stronger computational photography capabilities with the blessing of the A16.

　　New product line: Apple Watch Ultra, an extreme sports watch

　　Looking at the watch, Apple's new products show two major trends in the development of smart phones.

　　On the one hand, it is the refinement of functions. In addition to the standard features such as daily sleep tracking, mobile ECG atrial fibrillation reminder, and blood oxygen detection, Apple Watch Series 8 has launched a number of new functions. For example, the data tracking of women's ovulation period is added, and the accuracy of body temperature measurement is improved through double-layer sensors; another example, the same as the mobile phone, the car accident detection capability has been added. Based on two new motion sensors and other devices, it is used to detect car accidents and automatically Connect car owners to emergency services, provide location and notify emergency contacts.

　　At the same time, the new product also supports international roaming and can detect swimming postures. In addition, the Apple Watch has also jointly designed straps and dials with Nike and Hermes. Apple Watch Series 8 starts at $399 for GPS and $499 for GPS + Cellular.

　　On the other hand, the Apple Watch further expands to the extreme outdoor scene. The new Apple Watch Ultra product line is designed for outdoor exploration and adventure sportsmen and enthusiasts.

　　The case is made of aviation-grade titanium and is equipped with a cellular network, which can last up to 36 hours under normal use conditions, and can be extended to a maximum of 60 hours with low-power settings. Apple Watch Ultra is also equipped with precision dual-frequency GPS for the first time, including L1 and the latest L5 frequency, and adopts a new positioning algorithm to provide more accurate GPS functions.

　　It can also adapt to various extreme environments, from -20°C cold snow-capped mountains to 55°C blazing deserts. It also meets the standards of diving computers and instruments. The watch becomes a diving computer. Through oceanic+APP, computing and monitoring diving parameters. The Apple Watch Ultra is priced at $799 and the National Bank is priced at 6,299 yuan.

　　Additionally, the Apple Watch SE 2 will support crash detection, which will be 20 percent faster than the first-gen SE thanks to the same new S8 chip found in the Series 8. The Apple Watch SE will also support international roaming by pairing with the iPhone's roaming plan. The 40mm version of the Apple Watch SE 2 is priced from 1,999 yuan, and the 44mm version starts at 2,399 yuan.

　　According to the forecast provided by TrendForce to 21st Century Business Herald reporters, the shipment of Apple Watch in 2022 is expected to be 40.6 million units, a year-on-year increase of 10.9%; the global smart watch production volume is about 119 million units, a year-on-year increase of 10.6%.

　　Finally, looking at AirPods Pro, the new generation of headphones uses the H2 chip, which can set personalized spatial audio to bring an immersive listening experience, while improving the active noise reduction function, which is 2 times higher than the original noise reduction function. In addition, the adaptive transparency mode has been upgraded, and AirPods Pro can immediately respond to high-decibel noise and reduce noisy environmental noises such as construction. In active noise reduction mode, the listening time can be up to 6 hours, and the wireless charging box can charge the earphones 4 additional times. The new generation of AirPods Pro is priced at 1899 yuan.

　　Who will dominate the high-end market?

　　The outside world is waiting to see whether Apple can boost market confidence. At present, many institutions are optimistic about the sales momentum of the iPhone 14 series.

　　CITIC Securities said that with the fundamental differentiation of Apple and Android, the Apple brand continues to be strong. At present, the stocking of new iPhones is progressing smoothly, and it is expected to stock up about 95 million units. The agency expects that the sales of the iPhone 14 series will be about 83.5 million units in 2022.

　　TrendForce predicts that in 2022, iPhone production will be 238 million units, a year-on-year increase of 2.1%; global smartphone production will be approximately 1.226 billion units, a year-on-year decrease of 8.0%.

　　In terms of market share, Apple ranked second in the world in the second quarter of this year, and the top five smartphones in the world were Samsung (21.2% market share), Apple (16.5% market share), and OPPO (13.3% market share) , Xiaomi (13.0% market share), vivo (8.8% market share).

　　TrendForce further pointed out that the second quarter is a transition period for Apple's new and old models to be handed over, and it is mostly the quarter with the lowest annual production performance. In the second quarter, due to the impact of the epidemic and the supply chain supply being affected, the initial operation performance was affected. With the production capacity adjustment after the epidemic has eased, the output gap previously generated has been made up, and there is still an output of 48.2 million units in the second quarter.

　　Although the market share ranks second, in recent years, Apple has never been surpassed in the global high-end market and profits. In the two years that Huawei has faded out of the market, Apple has also become the biggest beneficiary of high-end prices in the Chinese market.

　　According to Counterpoint Research, in the second quarter of 2022, the global average price (ASP) of high-end smartphones ($400 and above) increased by 8% year-on-year to a record $780. This was mainly due to a 94% year-on-year increase in sales of models in the $1,000 and above price segment, which accounted for more than one-fifth of global smartphone revenue in the second quarter.

　　Among them, Apple accounted for 57% of the overall high-end smartphone market sales, and Apple's sales accounted for more than 78% of models of $1,000 and above.

　　Another set of noteworthy data also comes from Counterpoint Research. Based on the "active installed base" statistics, Apple's share of the US smartphone market in the second quarter of this year has surpassed the rest of Android devices, accounting for 50% of the share. This is also the highest share the iPhone has achieved since its launch in 2007.

　　The so-called active installed base refers to the smartphones that users are using. In addition to the sales of new phones, this data also includes millions of users who have entered the Apple ecosystem through the second-hand market, and users who use older iPhones.

　　Jeff Fieldhack, director of analysis at Counterpoint Research, said the operating system has never changed significantly. But in the past 4 years, the direction of traffic change has been from Android to iOS. This is a major milestone, and the same may be seen in other rich countries around the world.

　　It can be seen from this that, compared with the internal competition between Android, Apple relies on the integration of software and hardware in the world, and currently there is no opponent that can compete with it. Even though Apple's share ratio is the highest and the share rules are the strictest, the result is that the company makes the most profit and allows developers and industry chains in the ecosystem to share the food. In the future competition between Apple and Android, how the two sides will attack and defend, we will wait and see.