CUPERTIN, California, US — Apple presented its next generation of iPhones that includes a new ultradelgated model and a slight price increase for one of its high -end models, while the company feels the pressure of a global commercial war.
The iPhone 17 line includes a new thinner model that will adopt the name “Air” that Apple already uses for its most stylized iPads and Mac computers. In what has become an annual rite for Apple, the four new iPhone 17 models will have better cameras and batteries longer than last year’s line. All iPhone 17 will have at least 256 gigabytes of storage, doubling the minimum amount of the previous generation.
“We are raising the standard again,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, before a crowd gathered in an auditorium appointed in honor of the co -founder of the company, Steve Jobs, located in its facilities in Cupertino, California:
The new iPhones are the first to be launched since President Donald Trump returned to the White House and unleashed a series of tariffs, in which, according to his government, it is an attempt to make foreign manufacture return to the United States, a crusade that has put Cook at the center of attention.
All iPhone 17 models are expected to remain manufactured in Apple’s manufacturing centers in China and India, exposing them to some of Trump’s tariffs.
Analysts believe that additional taxes to iPhones entering the United States increase the pressure on Apple to raise prices and thus protect their gain margins from their most emblematic product.
Without giving a specific reason, Apple will charge $ 1,100 for the iPhone 17 Pro, an increase of $ 100, equivalent to 10%, compared to the previous versions of that model. The iPhone Air will have an initial cost of $ 1,000, the price of last year iPhone 16 Pro.
Apple maintains the same initial price for the basic iPhone 17 in $ 800 and the iPhone 17 Pro Max in 1,200.
The four models will be in stores on September 19.
The price of Apple shares fell almost 2% in the operations on Tuesday afternoon.
To a measure aimed at the culture of selfies, the iPhone 17 models will have a more megapixel front camera for more clear photos. This camera will also have an option called “Center Stage” (central scenario) that will take advantage of a broader field view and a new sensor that will allow users to take photos in horizontal format without having to turn the iPhone.
Although most of the improvements of the iPhone 17 are similar to the incremental improvements of recent years, Apple seems to have done enough to “incorporate a sense of novelty to the iPhone, which has remained the same for too long,” said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore.
Although the iPhone 16 launched last year had a reasonably good performance, the models were not sold as well as the analysts had anticipated because Apple failed to fulfill all the artificial intelligence functions that it had promised, including a smarter and more versatile Siri assistant. Siri’s improvements have been postponed until next year.
The global trade war has aggravated Apple’s challenges.
Trump and United States Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, have repeatedly insisted that iPhones are manufactured in the United States and not abroad. It is an unrealistic demand whose implementation, according to analysts, would take years and make the current average price of the iPhone, around $ 1,000, double or even triple.
Cook tried to appease Trump initially committing to Apple would invest 500,000 million dollars in the United States over the next four years, and then increased the bet last month by adding another 100,000 million to the commitment. He also gave Trump a statue with a 24 carat gold base.
This type of diplomacy has helped isolate Apple of Trump’s most severe tariffs. However, since the iPhones that are imported to the United States still face tariffs of around 25%, some analysts speculated that the company would increase prices to help preserve its wide gain margins. But for the most part, Apple, and even rivals like Google, maintain the same prices they have put on their newest iPhones in recent years.
Although the price of Apple shares has dropped 4% so far this year, they have recovered in recent months in the midst of signs that the company will not be so affected by tariffs as feared, and a highly anticipated judicial ruling cleared the way for the company to continue receiving 20,000 million dollars per year to ensure that the Google search engine is the predetermined option in the iPhones.
