What did Apple do in 2017? Well, the iPhone X is not the only thing for sure. Here's a recap.
Minus the iPhone X, the year 2017 hasn't been the most happening one for Apple. That doesn't mean Apple made unimportant announcements, but most of what it's selling is a step into the future, making current developments the entry point. Here's what Apple has been up to.
iPhone X
The iPhone X is obviously the most important of all of Apple's announcements this year. Its edge-to-edge screen and FaceID are the highlight features of course, but more importantly, it is a step into the future of smartphone.
Qualcomm already announced facial identification support on the Snapdragon 845. So, Android OEMs should be catching up soon, and Apple, of course, is not going back from this. But can we please have TouchID back too, Apple?
With the iPhone X, bezel-less screens are sure to become a norm. The company isn't the first to employ this, but it's surely giving the industry the push it needed.
iPhone 8/8 Plus
The unsung heroes of 2017, the iPhone 8 Plus and 8 are still good phones. They are fast, have good cameras and gobs of storage. They're iterative for sure, but the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are important because they're probably the last iPhones we'll see in this avatar.
HomePod
It's been delayed to 2018 now, but Apple's entry into the smart speaker market turned a lot of heads. All we really know right now is that the HomePod is supposed to sound better than Amazon or Google's offerings, but let's hope Siri is ready for this challenge.
ARKit
After months of rumours and speculations, Apple unveiled its plans for augmented reality. Apple's interest in augmented reality has been well documented, and with ARKit, the company is giving developers a chance to take advantage of its powerful hardware implementations.
We already know the impact Apple's entry can make on an industry, and Google's response with ARCore just shows you that the future is looking good.
Apple TV 4K
The Apple TV now supports 4K playback. And more importantly, it is available in India now. Apple added the A10X Fusion chip to its TV box, making it the most powerful TV box out there. You can buy the 4K Apple TV for Rs. 15,900 for the 32GB variant, and Rs. 17,900 for the 64GB version. Apple is also selling the regular 4th generation Apple TV here.
iOS 11
The "biggest change" to iOS 11 ever, iOS 11 gives the iPad some nifty productivity boosts. It doesn't really make a big difference for the iPhones, but it is indeed better tuned for the iPhone X than anything else.
Interestingly, iOS 11 has had lower adoption rates than earlier versions. But that's possibly because the iPhone X was launched later than usual. Also, the OS has caused a few issues on users' devices.
iPad Pro 10.5
The 10.5 inch iPad Pro is the only new iPad this year. It's basically a new screen size, for those who found the 9.7-inch screen to be too small, and the 12.9-inch version to be too big.
iMac Pro
The iMac Pro was to start shipping from this month. It's an answer to Microsoft's Surface Studio and sports Intel's new octa and deca core Xeon processors. There's also a 5K display on the device, 128GB ECC memory and up to 4TB SSD. It'll sport AMD's Radeon Vega graphics and has four Thunderbolt 3 ports.
The iMac Pro isn't a big deal as a standalone product, but it at least tells us that Apple isn't done with all-in-one desktops yet.
Apple Watch Series 3
Last and certainly the least, Apple isn't giving up on smartwatches either. Maybe Apple will employ FaceID on these devices someday, but for the time being, they're anything but interesting. The Series 3 adds LTE support, but it's largely the same watch Apple launched last year. Yet, the company and its competitors seem to have faith in this industry, so let's hope 2018 will be better.
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