iPhone SE: Apple launches smaller, cheaper smartphone – in pictures

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  The iPhone SE has a 4-inch-screen, comes in four stainless- steel finishes, and incorporates the faster A9 processor that also runs the larger iPhone 6S handsets. The revamped compact iPhone arrives two months after Apple said quarterly sales will probably decline for the first time since 2003, heightening concern that demand for high-end smartphones has reached its peak. The company said it sold 30 million of the older 4-inch iPhones last year, including the majority of its Chinese sales -- a market where it risks losing share without an updated lower-end option. Reuters

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  The iPhone SE comes with 16 or 64 gigabytes of storage, with the latter model costing $499. IPhone SE has full support for the Siri voice-enabled digital assistant, a 12-megapixel camera, and includes features found on the larger phones like Apple Pay and the more secure Touch ID fingerprint scanner. Reuters

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  Orders for the new smartphone and iPad begin Thursday, and both will be shipped starting March 31. With the SE’s pricing, Apple is “getting serious about gaining more share in the mid-priced smartphone market vs. competitors like Samsung, Huawei, Oppo and LG, as the growth in the premium priced segment is slowing,” said New York-based Bloomberg Intelligence analyst John Butler. “A move to broaden its presence in the mid-priced segment represents Apple’s bid to sustain growth.” Reuters

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  Greg Joswiak, vice president of iOS, iPad and iPhone product marketing, announces the new iPhone SE. Apple sold 231 million iPhones in the last fiscal year. AP Photo

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  Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks. The company showed new band styles for Apple Watch, made of woven nylon. Prices for that device will now start at $299, down from $349. AP Photo

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  Apple Vice president Greg Joswiak on stage last night. “From a value proposition standpoint, we think it’ll find its niche,” Bill Kreher, a St Louis-based senior technology analyst at Edward Jones & Co, said. “At the same time, it’s important to know that Apple’s iPhone 7 update in September will be more critical.” Reuters

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  Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president and head of marketing, led the unveiling of the iPad Pro with a 9.7-inch display, a smaller version of the 12.9-inch Pro tablet designed for business users that was first introduced in September. The new Pro will start at $599 for a 32-gigabyte model. Apple chose to introduce a new 9.7-inch model because “it has remained our most popular size,” Schiller said. Reuters

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  Phil Schiller, senior VP of worldwide marketing for Apple, introduces the iPad Pro with 9.7-inch display. Revenue from Apple’s tablet, introduced in 2010, fell by 21 per cent in the three months that ended in December, with existing users seeing no need to buy updated models and more people choosing larger phones instead. The company sold 16.1 million of the devices in the quarter, a 25 percent decline from the holiday quarter a year earlier. Tablet shipments are forecast to decline 5.9 percent to 195 million units in 2016, according to market researcher IDC. Apple is projected to win 22 percent of the worldwide market in 2020, a decline from 29 percent this year, according to an IDC report earlier this month. Still, Schiller underscored that Apple’s goal with the iPad is winning over users whose PCs are becoming outdated, especially as the handheld devices add more of the larger machines’ functionality. Reuters

Apple showed off its new range of devices at a launch event in California, with a 4-inch iPhone, a new iPad Pro, plus new bands for the Watch.