Last week, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) had an event in San Francisco and it surpassed my expectations. I'll be head-on and say that it was the new MacBook which seemed much better than what I expected. But let me start to get you updated on the Apple Watch that this event was intended for. Before I start to mention all the details I will tell you some good news. It has been a big discussion about its battery life, people have been worried that the battery would not last a full day. Apple now says that the battery will last up to 18 hours which will probably be enough. But we will have to wait and see if the battery last long enough once people get their hands on the Apple Watch. Another thing that was uncertain, until Monday, was exactly how waterproof the watch actually would be. Tim Cook has previously said that he showers with his Apple Watch. After that, Apple updated its site with more details it was found that Apple Watch follows the standard IPX7. This means that the watch can withstand gently lowered into water to one meter for 30 minutes, you can wash your hands, work out so you sweat, go through rain and maybe take a shower if you do not have too high water pressure. However, you will not be able to bathe or swim with it.
Before I start to mention all the details I will tell you some good news.
I assume that you've already seen the watch, it has a square screen and you can choose between 38 mm or 42 mm size. When it comes to Apple Watch have Apple given a great variety of choices, something that Apple is not exactly known for. Firstly, there are three different models to choose between Apple Watch (Steel), Sport and Edition. The standard watch is in stainless steel or space black stainless steel cases and the screen has sapphire crystal glass. The price for this model will cost between $549-1099 depending on size and band. The cheaper version, Apple Watch Sports, will cost $349 and if you want the larger size it costs $399. And it has an anodized aluminum cases in silver or gray space, the screen has strengthened Ion-X glass and you get to choose between different colorful band. The more expensive, Apple Watch Edition, have 18-carat gold cases in yellow or rose, sapphire crystal glass and specially crafted bands and closures. The price will start at $10,000 and go as high as $17,000... that's really expensive gold.
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Apple makes entrance on a huge growth market with Apple Watch, namely wearables. I have mentioned before that Wall Street believe that Apple will sell between 10-20 million smartwatches this year. Morgan Stanley is one of the most bullish, they believe that Apple will sell nearly 30 million (the motivation is that 10% of those who own an iPhone 5 or later model will buy an Apple Watch). But it may turn out that their estimation is not too high, but too low. According to data that Business Insider has obtained via Credit Suisse, 18% of those who bought an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus will "definitely" buy the Apple Watch. Then they would sell 35 million watches which would probably surprise many. I've talked about Apple's big opportunity to capture this market and I have explained overall why I own shares. You can read about it here: My First Stock: Apple
Apple makes entrance on a huge growth market with Apple Watch...
They also presented a new Macbook that has become much thinner and lighter, which also got a Retina screen. It has been rumored a long time that they would make a new Macbook and they have really made an effort to make it as small and light as possible. The computer is 13.1 mm at its thickest, weighs only 2 pounds and has a 12 inch Retina screen with 2304x1440 pixels, which is 226 pixels per inch. As for the processor, it ended up with an Intel Core M-processor starting at 1,1 GHz and goes up to 1,3 GHz, with Turbo Boost between 2,4 and 2,9 GHz. Thanks to the new processor that only using 5 watts, Apple has been able to remove the fan in the MacBook, it's therefore completely silent. Internal memory is 8 GB and is a special low energy memory that will help to conserve battery power. The base model has 256 GB of flash-based storage, which is twice as much as the basic model of the Macbook Air and the graphics are handled by the Intel HD Graphics 5300.
But how have they managed to make the computer so thin? To begin with, they have taken away all ports except one (and a headphone port). Apple is one of the first companies that now use a USB-C port, which soon is expected to be a standard connector in the market. The new MacBook also has a new and slimmer keyboard, it's a new type of keyboard mechanism, which the company calls butterflies. Which gives a more precise writing experience, the keys are also 17% larger and each key has its own backlight which provides a better distribution over the entire keyboard. But more components was needed to be thinner to fit in this Macbook. A new thinner touchpad have been made which use vibrations that make clicks feels the same everywhere on the plate. It's called Force Touch and it will open up to more and better features with the touchpad. Lastly, they have designed special batteries to fill up the empty space in the chassis almost perfect (battery life is up to 9 hours).
I think it's great that they have several parables between their products so you can easily get an overview of all the products.
Apple has also chosen to release a MacBook with three different colors of silver, space gray and gold. As nearly all of their other products now have. I think it's great that they have several parables between their products so you can easily get an overview of all the products. The new MacBook starts at $1299. That was all the details about Apple Watch and the MacBook, I hope it was not overwhelming with info for you. More things that happened during the event was that the price of Apple TV was lowered to $69, and they announced that the new HBO Now streaming subscription service will be available exclusively on Apple devices at launch. ResearchKit was also unveiled, allowing medical researchers to create applications that will help them study and cure conditions and diseases at a scale never before possible. In conclusion, I want to see a clip about the MacBook that have gone viral. You can see it below, I challenge you to try not to laugh!
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