iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / Apple Pay / Apple Watch Announced

Stephen McCance September 10, 2014

Highlights: The iPhone 6 is thinner and has a 4.7inch screen. iPhone 6 Plus is a 5.5inch phone/tablet hybrid. Apple Pay aims to take contactless card payments to the next level and the Apple Watch looks better than its competitors but performs exactly the same functions.

We are all aware by now that Apple and Samsung like to copy each other’s ideas. In general, Samsung release them first, Apple then copy a year or so later and improve them with their trademark functionality and usability. In the Apple keynote speech yesterday 4 new products were announced, of which 2 were copied from Samsung/other mobile phone manufacturers.

The first product was the iPhone 6. This was the usual progression of the phone involving a bigger screen (4.7inches from 4inches on the iPhone 5), a thinner body and ‘improved battery life’. When Apple say ‘improved battery life’ what they actually mean is they have improved the battery to cope with the bigger screen and faster processor rather than actually trying to give the phone a life of more than about 16 hours!

We then found out that Apple have now been forced in to joining the phablet (phone/tablet hybrid) marketplace or risk losing out on potentially billions of pounds to Samsung. The new iPhone 6 Plushas a 5.5inch screen making it a direct competitor to the Samsung Galaxy S5 and its 5.1inch screen.

The most exciting announcement of the day was the new Apple Pay platform that is being rolled out on the iPhone 6. It is tapping in to the market of contactless credit cards and allowing users to use their phone to pay at any retailer that enables contactless (NFC) payments. You can either use the card associated with your Apple account or take a picture of the card you want to use and the phone will automatically pick the details off your card and add it to the Apple secure server. No details will actually be held on your phone which helps with any potential security concerns customers might have.

Finally, it was the turn of the long awaited Apple Watch. There isn’t really much to say that hasn’t already been done by Samsung/Sony etc…all of the same features are on it, the major difference is that they have made it look a little nicer and put a proper analogue watch face on it (obviously not a real watch face, an image of one).