If you’re looking for a catalyst to move slumping technology shares higher, circle September 7.
That’s the date for Apple’s (AAPL) launch event to unveil the new iPhone 14 line. It’s just one–but the biggest–of Apple’s product launches this fall. The company is expected to announce new Macs, low-end and high-end iPads, and three models for the Apple Watch.
The iPhone 14 launch comes as industrywide smartphone sales have slumped in the face of high inflation and a slowing economy–in the United States, China, and the EuroZone.
Apple, so far, looks to be successfully resisting that trend. The company hasn’t told suppliers to expect a drop in demand. And last quarter the company reported solid sales. The September and December quarters are crucial for the company since that’s when Apple books the majority of its annual sales. The iPhone makes generates more than half of Apple’s sales.
According to Apple watchers (that’s folks who watch Apple and not folks who wear Apple Watches), the standard iPhone 14 will be similar to the current iPhone 13 with the addition of a model that has a big 6.7-inch screen, the first display of that size on a non-Pro iPhone.
The iPhone 14 Pro will sport bigger changes including the replacement of the “notch,” the cutout for the front-facing camera, with a hole for the Face ID sensor and another for the camera. The Pro will also gain a 48-megapixel wide-angle camera to go with the 12-megapixel ultrawide and telephoto sensors. Apple will also add a faster chip to the Pro lineup. The regular iPhone models will run on the current A15 chip.
Apple shares are down 0.12% today, August 18, as of 3 p.m. New York time, to $174.34. The stock is off only 1.32% for 2022 as of the August 17 close and is up 16.39% in the last month as of the August 17 close.
