One of the top smartphone manufacturers in the world, Apple, has been hooked due to a supply chain crisis and forced to halt the production of its iPhone lineup. According to a Nikkei report, who always digs deeper into the index calculation, Foxconn, Pegatron, and other Apple suppliers halted the production for the first time in more than 10 years, and that too ahead of the Christmas festive season.
Fortunately, the production ramped down only for a few days, mostly due to supply chain constraints and, of course, due to China’s ongoing power restriction. The company was planning to add additional work hours to meet global demand for the holiday shopping season, but workers are getting time off instead of overtime. The unwanted happenings made Apple miss their latest iPhone 13 lineup targets.
The Nikkei report further mentioned that Apple halted iPhone and iPad production for several days in September and October, which shocked the world. The Cupertino-California headquartered company’s initial goal was to manufacture 95 million iPhone 13 models in 2021, but due to the shortage of components and chips, the company made changes in its plans and decided to go with at least 83-85 million units.
Apple CEO Tim Cook recently said the supply chain issues are expected to continue till December, which would cost the company more than $7 billion of loss. At the same time, the company is pressuring its suppliers to reaccelerate their production development of the iPhone for December and January. Along with China’s ongoing power restriction, Malaysian and Vietnamese lockdown measures are also the leading components to halt the production.
Apple recently launched the iPhone 13 lineup, along with several other products, including iPad, iPad Mini and Apple Watch Series 7, in the ‘California Streaming’ virtual launch event. While some people were budgeting out to buy the newly launched Apple products, a group of college-going young intellectual minds started wondering if the “i” prefix has graced Apple’s renowned trademark, then why the Apple Watch isn’t branded as the iWatch?
iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad, all of these famous Apple products are named according to a similar pattern except Apple Watch, and every time Apple launches a new model of the Apple Watch Series, the same question arises why it is called as Apple Watch instead of iWatch? Well, by now, a number of Apple enthusiastic people have known about the reason behind it and for the rest, here comes the answer but first, let’s take a quick look at iHistory.
A Little iHistory
When Apple acquired NeXT in 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple, taking over the helm of Apple as CEO of the company he co-founded in 1976 with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The company was struggling when he returned and was on the verge of breaking, and then magic happened when Apple released the iMac in 1998. Soon, it became a popular product, and Apple came back on track.
The name iMac was referred to by Ken Segall, a man who worked for Apple’s advertising agency, and after tasting a massive success with iMac, Apple continued using the lowercase “i” prefix for various products including, the first iBook, which was released in 1999, for iPad since 2001, for web-based Apple services- iReview, iTool, iTunes, and for iPhone since 2007.
The launch of the iPhone in 2007 turned out to be revolutionary for the company as it cemented its place in the world of technology, and then Apple started developing its first-ever smartwatch with a would-be plan to name it an iWatch. Apple wasn’t aware of the already ongoing courtroom drama around the name iWatch, and all of it came to Apple as an unexpected and unwanted surprise.
High Voltage iDrama
It all started in June 2007, when a New York-based M.Z. Berger & Co. filed to trademark the iWatch name, which was dragged down by Swiss watchmaker Swatch. The Swiss company created a valid point leading to trademark litigation that the iWatch name would create confusion with Swatch buyers. While in European Union countries, a Dublin-based firm named Probendi has held the rights to the iWatch name since 2008. Their website claims that it is the only entity allowed to use the term iWatch in the European Union and warns to take strict legal action against any company that uses the iWatch name in the EU region.
Later on, in 2012, Fresno-California-based OMG Electronics, which was intended to create a smartwatch, applied for a trademark for the iWatch name before Apple. The application proposal was displeased when Swiss watchmaker Swatch challenged OMG Electronics over the company’s trademark application. At the same time, OMG Electronics sought to raise $100,000 to produce a smartwatch on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo, but unfortunately, it only managed to raise $1434.
Leaving the US struggle behind, Apple applied for a trademark for iWatch in the UK, but again Swiss watchmaker Swatch demonstrated that it had an earlier trademark for iSwatch, which sound almost similar to iWatch and would cause confusion. Apple failed to convince the Intellectual Property Office of the UK and the result was declared in favour of Swatch in Oct. 2014. Further, Apple appealed the decision to the High Court, and this time the result was stated in favour of Apple.
After struggling over the iWatch trademark in the United States and European Union countries, Apple went further to try their fate in China, but to Apple’s lousy luck, the company got to know that in China, nine different companies have held the iWatch trademark. Overall, Apple managed to obtain the iWatch trademark in a number of countries, including Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, and Russia.
However, when Apple unveiled the first-ever smartwatch in 2015, it was branded as Apple Watch because the company failed to secure the iWatch trademark in large segments of the world. Whenever asked in the media about whether it made a bid to buy the iWatch trademark from the current holders as it did with the iPhone and iPad, the company never implemented a straight answer.
Apple and September have been paired together for a long time, and why Apple always prefers September to launch its major products is no longer a topic of discussion. Just like every year, Apple endured its tradition and launched a number of gadgets in a jam-packed ‘California Streaming’ virtual launch event, including iPad, iPad Mini, Apple Watch Series 7, and one of the most-awaited smartphone series, iPhone 13.
The new iPhone 13 lineup was the lead performer of the event, and it successfully seized all the attention like its predecessors. As expected, following last year’s tradition, Apple launched four new iPhone 13 models- iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Mini, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max with the exact screen sizes and very identical designs honed with smaller notches to the iPhone 12 lineup.
Chipset, Connectivity & Availability:
The entire iPhone 13 lineup is powered by the cutting-edge A15 Bionic chipset, the fastest processor in smartphones, almost 50% faster than top competitors. The iPhone 13 and the iPhone 13 Mini get the 6-core CPU and 4-core GPU options, while the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max features the 6-core CPU and 5-core integrated GPU.
The iPhone 13 lineup gets the new 16-core Neural Engine as standard, which helps them perform better and offer innovative camera features like Smart HDR 4 and Cinematic mode. The iPhone 13 lineup supports dual SIM via the physical SIM + eSIM route, but they all also have dual eSIM functionality for the first time, along with 5G connectivity options.
The iPhone 13 lineup will be available for pre-order on the Apple India Online Store from 5:30 pm on September 17, and the sale for the same will go Live on September 24. Also, if you haven’t noticed, for the first time, Apple is making its newly launched phones available for sale in India, at the same time as other markets, including the US.
Display, Design & Colour Options:
The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini sports a 6.1-inch and a 5.4-inch display, respectively, while iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max boast a 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR display, respectively, along with ProMotion. Sadly, only the Pro models get the new adjustable refresh rates that can scale from 10Hz to 120Hz, but the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini are still stuck at an old 60Hz refresh rate.
The iPhone 13 lineup gets a flat-edged design, the same as the iPhone 12 but with a 20% smaller notch than the iPhone 12. The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini get flat-edge aluminium frames with Ceramic Shield material on the front, while the Pro models feature surgical grade stainless steel with a custom finish resistant to abrasion and corrosion. The camera placement is also changed diagonally instead of straight, as seen on the iPhone 12.
Apart from these changes, the rest of the phone is very similar to its predecessor. The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini are available in Starlight, Midnight, BluePink and Product Red, while the Pro models are available in Silver, Graphite, Gold, and Sierra blue.
Camera Upgrades:
Apple brings breakthrough camera innovations with an improved 12-MP primary camera, a night mode, a better ultrawide lens and a sensor for the iPhone 13 lineup. In particular, the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini gets a 12MP wide lens with an f/1.6 aperture that can offer 47% more light-gathering than the iPhone 12 and a 12MP ultra-wide lens with an f/2.4 aperture along with sensor-shift optical image stabilization, Smart HDR 4 and Cinematic video mode with Dolby Vision support to make your videos appear like films.
As for the Pro models, they feature an ultra-wide, wide, and telephoto lens along with other camera features such as new apertures for telephoto, 6x optical zoom range instead of 5x, digital zoom up to 15x instead of 12x, Photographic Styles along with Smart HDR 4 and Cinematic video mode. Along with all of these features, the iPhone 13 lineup also supports 4K video recording up to 60fps on all cameras.
Battery Backup:
Apple is infamous for its quick battery drains, but this time, the company has worked hard on this section and provided longer-lasting batteries to all four iPhone 13 models compared to its counterpart iPhone 12 lineup. The iPhone 13 gets about 2.5 hours more battery life than iPhone 12, while iPhone 13 Mini gets 1.5 hours more battery life than its predecessor. The same happens with the Pro models- the iPhone 13 Pro gets 1.5 hours, and iPhone 13 Pro Max gets 2.5 hours more battery than its counterparts.
Price:
The iPhone 13 lineup has borrowed almost every feature from the last year launched iPhone 12 series, and that’s why it’s tough to find a difference between iPhone 12 and iPhone 13. It is the same phone with minor design changes, a better processor, a cinematic video recording mode, overhauled cameras and narrower notches, improved battery life and of course, a new name.
The base model of the iPhone 13 Mini with 128GB storage is priced at 69,900, while the prices start from Rs 79,900 for iPhone 13. While the Pro models, iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, are priced at Rs 1,19,900 and Rs 1,29,900, respectively. The storage capacities for the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max are available in various options- 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB.
