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APPLE CEO TIM Cook strode through a slickly produced video today to launch a new iPhone, with few hints of the exceptional string of troubles facing his company including policy reversals, a spyware attack and legal fights.
Cook, from an empty, darkened auditorium, raved over upgraded cameras, brighter screens and new features for some of the Silicon Valley giant’s other devices like the iPad.
“These are the best iPhones we’ve ever created,” Cook said, noting Apple’s work to design the “very best products and services to enrich people’s lives.”
Yet a head-spinning series of problems have occupied the recent public discussion of one the world’s most valuable companies.
Due to a long and loud fight over its online app marketplace, a judge ordered Apple last week to allow developers to sidestep its hefty commission on purchases.
It delayed a plan to scan its customers’ devices as part of a child abuse prevention move, after privacy advocates hit back over the risk of opening a backdoor for government surveillance.
And then yesterday it was forced to roll out an urgent fix after cybersecurity researchers found a weakness that allowed Pegasus spyware to infect Apple devices without users so much as clicking a malicious message.
That said, Apple still possesses massive reach in the digital world and beyond, and manages to be worth over $2 trillion.
Its fans cheered the release of the updated products today, including analyst Daniel Ives who noted “the supercycle for Cupertino,” referring to the California city that is home to Apple’s headquarters.
“Apple remains in the midst of its strongest overall product cycle in roughly a decade,” he added.
Array of challenges
It is true the company has racked up massive profits driven by the demand for its devices as much of the world hunkered down at home due to the pandemic.
At the same time legal battles, new laws and the scrutiny of regulators around the world has added up to a series of challenges against the company.
As Cook expounded on iPhone developments, a group fighting to loosen Apple’s control over its App Store tweeted its verdict on the new handset.
“Today’s rollout of the iPhone 13 only tells us one thing: new iPhone, same bad App Store,” wrote Coalition for App Fairness.
“It’s time for @Apple to #OpenTheAppStore and level the playing field for app developers and innovators.”
Apple has started to cede ground on its App Store dominance, including in an agreement with Japanese regulators.
It also faces the legislation adopted by South Korean lawmakers, which banned Apple and Google from forcing app developers to use the tech giants’ payment systems.
Yet when the verdict came in a California court on Friday, Apple barely complained about the ruling ordering it to ease control over its App Store.
Instead it heaved a public sigh of relief the judge had not found it to be an illegal monopoly, which could have opened doors for regulators and prosecutors to go after the tech giant.
“We consider this a huge win for Apple,” it told reporters.
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iPhone 13…and I’m using an iPhone 5 here. Should I be embarrassed to take it out of my pocket
@James Fox: If you’re in tamangoes of a night deffo yes James. Otherwise yer good to go.
@James Fox: best IPhone 5 and proper size I am dreading an upgrade, the newer phones are too big
@Brian Burns: I bought last year’s SE and it’s a smaller phone. I had the 6 and this made huge difference in speed and memory
@James Fox: I’d be more concerned about the iPhone 5 no longer receiving security and system updates.
@James Fox: You should be embarrassed by your lack of a question mark.
@James Fox: You should be embarrassed by your unforgivable omission of a question mark.
@James Fox: The iPhone 5 was a beautiful phone though.
@James Fox: my mother still uses my old iPhone 5s. I’ll be handing my current phone to her in December when I’m eligible for an upgrade to the iPhone 13.
@James Fox: not at all. Shows you have sense
Got an Oppo Reno 4 pro 5G for 280 recently in Argos. The thing has 6 cameras on it for some reason, the main one is 48 megapixel, unreal phone specs and battery lasts two days. With phones like these going so (relatively) cheap it’s hard to see why people buy Apple for anything other than the brand.
@Paul Cullen: Different strokes for different folks. For me, the Apple devices are about much more than a brand. iOS is stable, predictable, consistent and very reliable. Its power and memory management is superior to Android. As pieces of hardware, they have greater longevity from a support/security perspective. I trust Apple more on the privacy front than Google. I’ve been in both camps, coming from a price agnostic standpoint as my employer pays for my device regardless, I’m happy to settle for an Apple device. If it was cheaper or less well known, I’d still go for it.
@Paul Cullen: I hear argos in the pavilion shopping centre swords co Dublin is no more. Methinks argos in trouble.
@Paul Gorry: ie keep receipt.
@Paul Gorry: it’s moved to the Omni shopping centre. I’ve heard on the grapevine that rent was the reason for the move.
@Ken Loughman: yeah heard that ken. Recon a big loss of jobs as in having 2 stores consolidated into one. If argos can’t afford the rent who can?
@Paul Gorry: Amazon starting to affect the high street retailer imo.
@Paul Cullen: phones are being commoditised.
During this iPhone launch, it was the first time I’ve heard them comparing the performance to other competitor phones rather than the last iPhone.
The most over rated company in history.
Up to 13, cleary must be worth €1,500 then, imagine all the extra features it must have
@RJ: 13 pro Max €1279
You can see what I did there, guessed well over 1000 and wasn’t too far out. Service revenue from now on,
@RJ: I’d say the camera is well worth it. since that’s all I have heard since the iPhone 7.
@Paul Gorry: There’s only so much camera capabilities that a normal person needs.
@That’s FineGaelness: yep and it was on the iPhone 7.
@RJ: €1859.00 for the top iPhone 13 announced tonight. Crazy stuff.
@Starla Ween: that’s if your looking for 1TB of storage sure who wants that 128GB will cost €1250 128GB is plenty of storage as most people shoot Edit post to social media then delete. Personally I shoot import to a 4TB external hard drive edit in LR back up to other external hard drives.
Your process makes no sense. Why would anyone do it like that? P.S. commas might help the context make sense also.
Usial Apple ‘innovations’ releasing hardware specs that all the other big manufacturers released 2-3 years ago. Wow, more boring camera upgrades. Phones really haven’t moved on in any real sense in about 5 years. I have a GS9+ and a GS21 with work and there no dicernable difference in day to day use at all. You’d be mad to spend €1300 on a phone. Save the moola toward a house deposit if your young. Your not missing out on anything
That’s a shame. I was hoping at least that the personnel in the Pavilions branch would be redeployed to other branches and not simply let go. Speaking as a consumer I live very close to the Pavilions and I liked the convenience of simply dropping into Argos to buy whatever I needed.
@Ken Loughman: that was a reply to Paul Gorry’s comment.
Does anyone care anymore. Pretty sick of small screens and tiny buttons. Why are we even using keypads anymore, surely theres a better way. Apple have slid comfortably from a innovative forward reaching company to a lazy corporate money sloth.
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