Another wave of the Apple legacy is about to unveil and admirers everywhere patiently hold their breath for that mighty moment when the new iPhone 6s will be released.
Apple has an incredible way of creating giant waves of hype surrounding their product releases. Tech based companies have a fairly standardized approach to marketing, and as the world’s most successful brand, Apple certainly excels and stands out. Enthusiasts are on the edge of their seats lately and rumors of release dates and potential improvements have already started circulating.
Notable Apple fanboy and author, John Paczkowski, has many predictions regarding this upcoming product release. In his recent BuzzFeed article, Paczkowski predicts that the new releases will be announced on September 13.
Additionally, the San Francisco News Source, Hoodline, points out that there has been a mysterious 7,000 person event booked at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. The arena is closed until September 13 for a private event, which just so happens to be the end of the weekend following the predicted announcement date.
There is much speculation floating around that is relevant to what game changing additions will be made to the world’s most popular smartphone. According to Mac Rumors, these are the predicted features of the iPhone 6s:
● A9 Processor and 2GB RAM
● Higher quality camera: 12-megapixel
● Improved Touch ID
● Force Touch
● Same design as the iPhone 6, but with a less bendable aluminum shell
● Four colors: gold, rose gold, silver, and space gray
The boosted processor and extra RAM are the most fundamentally noticeable upgrades, however, Force Touch is an entirely new idea.
Force Touch is going to hopefully be another amazing addition. This concept is based on touch sensitivity also known as velocity. The amount of pressure applied to a tap on the iPhone’s screen will correlate to different commands. This will be another groundbreaking yet simplistic feature that Apple will pioneer with this iPhone.
Finally, there are even more rumors about the new iPhone that elevate the potential of this release. The battery life may be extended by as much as double, and a new Qualcomm chip might equate to even more speed improvements. Not much has been said about the possibility of extended storage though. One can guess that with the iPhone more than likely not slimming down, that the amount of storage space will inevitably grow. Many are hopeful that the base model will start at 32GB.
Quite simply, we do not know what is truly in store with this round of Apple announcements, but one thing's for sure: this is a topic everyone is talking about!
An important timely issue that is directly relevant to this release is the future of mobile payment. Apple included an NFC chip in the iPhone 6 but how will this segue into the newer variant of the family?
Smartphones are used everywhere, everyday, in a rapidly growing number of modern disciplines; from social work, application development, nursing, etc. Even the older generation of retirees are using smartphone services in some surprising ways, including succeeding in online education as a senior citizen. As we see the inevitable progress, we can start to question in what ways smartphones will begin to shape the world.
In one of my previous posts, I explore the future of payment cards and predict that a massive rise in mobile payment is about to take place. If Apple upgrades it’s wireless capabilities and security features (which seems to be consistent with the unveiling rumors), this will become a mainstream occurrence in America.
The fact is, the United States are behind a lot of the world when it comes to chip based payments. EMV (smart cards) and NFC (near-field communication) technology exist in the U.S., but is still not as widely used as old-school payment cards.
First Data, put together a reputable resource on this subject. It states:
“The term “EMV” refers to a specification for the technical requirements of chip-enabled payment devices, generally credit and debit payment cards with embedded microchips, and how the cards interact with point-of-sale and ATM infrastructures. There are many “flavors” of a chip-based payment standard, including using chip + PIN only or chip + choice (the option of using either PIN or signature) as cardholder verification tools; the majority of EMV implementations globally have focused on chip + PIN enablement. Whatever the format, smart chips are the basis of the technical standard behind more than 1.24 billion payment cards and 15.4 million POS terminals,3 with almost all of those cards and acceptance devices residing outside the United States. Europe, Canada, Latin America and Asia/Pacific are all in various stages of EMV chip migration and usage, leaving the U.S. region—the largest user of payment cards in the world—as the last major hold-out for implementing the otherwise global standard.”
A lot of the world is ahead of America in regards to EMV and alternative ways of payment, but we won’t be for long. This October there will be many changes in the U.S. related to the way that transactions are made and point-of-sale systems are used. EMV’s and NFC’s will become the new normal, and the days of struggling with pesky magnetic strip cards are over!