iWatched, isaw, i-impressed

Sir Jony Ive is a genius. He really is. Well, his team is too, you cannot give credit to one person, although Ives, a close friend of Steve Jobs always seemed to have got the credit for the beautiful phones that Apple designed. Ive is apparently a fellow that keeps a low profile and enjoys family time. The new products unveiled last evening were all pretty much as anticipated, the two new phone models, the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus were both with bigger screens when compared to the previous generation iPhone, the last being the 5S. Thinner, quicker, better display than before, you would naturally expect all those things. Check out the landing page for the new product from the website: Bigger than bigger. The bigger model naturally has a better battery life.

Before we start, this could possibly be one of the simplest and best tweets ever. By the Apple CEO, Tim Cook and with a simple beautiful device:

I'm backstage and this is my first tweet from my iPhone 6. It's amazing. You're going to love it.

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) September 9, 2014

Watch the Apple video from Ive, amongst others, to see all the new features of the two phones. Better and smaller chip to be faster, use less battery life, whilst the phone (for all your sports junkies) includes a motion sensor that tells you how you are doing exercise wise during a day. I am pretty sure that it is not a gimmick, someone on the box suggested that Tim Cook himself is a serious cyclist. As serious as you can be running the biggest company in the world. The Health app that comes standard with the newer models can measure your intake and your output. Remember, eating is cheating! Nah, everything in moderation.

The Apple Pay function is also pretty cool, the fact that you can pay using your fingerprint and integrated hardware (obviously) from the retailers themselves. Remembering that Apple has your credit card details already if you have an iTunes account, most people do. So that is the payment system, check! So how does it work? The segment on the site suggests the following:

One touch to pay with Touch ID. Now paying in stores happens in one natural motion - there's no need to open an app or even wake your display thanks to the innovative Near Field Communication antenna in iPhone 6. To pay, just hold your iPhone near the contactless reader with your finger on Touch ID. You don't even have to look at the screen to know your payment information was successfully sent. A subtle vibration and beep lets you know.

If you are shopping somewhere you just use your fingerprint technology in order to pay, simple. Sounds a little too simple, fingerprint technology is the real deal though! In fact the point is made that you never reveal your name, nobody ever sees your card or security code to any cashier person in any store. Didn't think about that, very nice! And if the device is lost, remember you need a fingerprint to activate a payment or unlock the phone, so if someone were to somehow crack that, putting the phone in lost mode wipes all the documents clear off the device. Credit cards are added to your passbook and bobs your uncle as they say.

A better camera and video (the video segment looks amazing), faster wireless than ever before. The aforementioned fingerprint technology also now approves purchases from the Apple ecosystem, the App store, iTunes and iBooks. It is not closed off to the Apple apps only, for the very first time it seems that all those developers (who share so much with the company) can integrate the touch ID function (that is what it is called) into their applications. For payments, naturally. Candy Crush just crushed your pocket via your thumb.....

There are the same three colours for the newer models, Space Gray, Gold and Silver. The 128 GB iPhone 6 will cost 399 Dollars, the corresponding 6 plus will cost 100 Dollars more, they are still very expensive devices. In the US the likes of Sprint, AT&T, T Mobile and Verizon will be the carriers.

So when can one buy one? Sadly for us, we will not see it immediately. As per the website: Pre-order starting September 12. Or visit an Apple Retail Store beginning at 8:00 a.m. on September 19. If you click the contract free option, the iPhone plus clocks in at a cool 949 Dollars for the biggest model, the 128 GB one. The smallest 16GB iPhone 6 (not the plus) without a contract is 649 Dollars, still not cheap. Well made and beautifully engineered devices do not come cheap. When will it be here?

I was thinking last evening during the launch, just before in fact, I do not know of any device in the existence of humanity that is kept so close and has had as big an impact as the mobile phone. None. There is not a single device that we have become as reliant on. Can you think of one?

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If that was not enough, then the Apple Watch announcement was both expected and could be the next big thing in wearable technology. The Apple Watch segment of the website spells out a device that has two sizes, possibly to attract more than just sport addicts, and comes in 18 different designs that each and every user can customise. The 18 different designs refer mostly to the straps, the 38 and 42 millimetre sizes come in three different models. The Watch (hard and durable), the Sport collection (self explanatory) and the Watch Edition has the 18 Carat gold casing, a more classic design.

Movement of your wrist activates the controls, the familiar applications. The digital crown (the thing that looks like the old wind up on a classic watch) enables you to zoom in or out of the applications that you want and need, be that photos or be that maps, as per the associated video on the Apple Watch. The digital crown is also the home button. You can see that there is Siri integration, and of course smart respond to messages.

Jony Ive says in the video that it was about making a simple, functional and pure product. I think that they nailed it, the three separate designs are there to be customised, they do not tell you that one fits all. From what I could tell from Twitter (I "watched" the launch on both the box and Twitter) is that there was a groan about the one thing that mattered. When was it going to be available. I have taken a screen grab of the website and it is not completely clear just of yet, importantly not in time for Christmas:



That was probably the only disappointing thing with regards to the day, the anticipation around the products (which were spot on) and lastly the pricing of the products, that was all expected. The delays and indefinite dates with regards to the Apple Watch launch (notice the subtle drop of the word i with the product, Apple Watch and not iWatch) weighed on the price. The stock closed lower eventually, as much as 5 Dollars off the highs! That for me is a fabulous opportunity. Really. There is a huge pent up demand for the newer phone as Paul said, the minute that they launch it is going to be huge. There were no iPhone sales in 2006. There were 150 million last year. I think that is all you need to know. We maintain our conviction buy on Apple.