Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) officially released iPhone SE with a trimmed 4-inch display, iPad Pro with a 9.7-inch True Tone display including a new nylon Watch straps alongside iOS 9.3 at an event held at Town Hall, a small theatre inside Apple’s Headquarters in Cupertino.
While iPhone SE costs $399 for 16GB variant whereas the new iPad Pro is priced at $599 for 32GB storage with the 256GB storage version costing $899. However, both iPhone SE and iPad Pro are available in rose gold, gold, silver, and space grey colors.
Commenting on the launch of new devices, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that there are one billion active Apple devices globally and the trend is expected to grow further by the end of 2016. Cook also said that the new iPhone SE delivers incredible battery enhancements than its previous counterparts.
Coming to specifications, iPhone SE features a 4-inch display, 64-bit A9 chip, M9 motion coprocessor loaded with iOS 9.3. Equipped with a 12MP iSight camera with Retina Flash, the device also provides support for Hey Siri, Apple Pay and 4G LTE.
The newly released iPad Pro 10, on the other hand, features a 9.7-inch True Tone display, A9X chip with the same motion co-processor as iPhone SE. In addition to 12MP iSight Camera, the iPad Pro also offers a 5MP FaceTime HD camera with Retina Flash. Interestingly, the new iPad Pro is integrated with four speakers and comes bundled with a pencil, keyboard and smart adapters.
Apple also unveiled a new range of watch bands including a black version of the Milanese Loop, new colours for Hermes straps and another line of bands made from nylon. On the software side, Apple has released iOS 9.3, which will be available from today.
“There has been an increase in the sale of Apple Watches and in December, people bought the device as Christmas present,” adds Cook during his speech.
In a major twist to Apple’s contribution towards the medical field, Jeff Williams, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer also unveiled CareKit, which is a framework to build apps that empower people to take an active role in their medical care.
Apple revealed that CareKit touted as a successor to previously released ResearchKit, will be used to initially build apps to study Parkinson’s disease with six medical centers will take advantage of the features of the app. Meanwhile, Apple is also working with Texas Medical center to develop an app for surgery patients to track information.
