Apple announces September iPhone event
In typical playful fashion, Apple has sent out cryptic invitations to this year's iPhone announcement event. The landing page on Apple's website where the keynote address will stream teases, "Hey Siri, give us a hint."
This year's event will be held at San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on Wednesday, September 9.
The event is expected to focus on iPhone 6s and an iPhone 6s Plus, since Apple has typically introduced new designs every two years and this would be the in-between year for more modest updates.
The iPhone is Apple's most successful product, accounting for two-thirds of the company's profits, CNET reports. Last year's models were the highest sellers, propelling the company to record profitablility.
At this year's iPhone event, Apple is expected to show off new colors and technology like ForceTouch, a feature pioneered on the Apple Watch that responds to different sensitivities to touch. The newest phones are also expected to boast faster processors and cameras.
Though the annual event in September is usually focused on unveiling the newest features and updated hardware for the iPhone, there is speculation about what else the company may include on the agenda, given changes in the market and other products they could be looking to refresh.
Shara Tibken of CNET writes, "While it continues to sell millions of phones, the overall mobile market has slowed, raising worries that not even Apple is immune to the lackluster demand."
Tibken speculates that, though an iPad event usually follows in October, Apple could opt to announce a larger 12.9-inch iPad Pro sooner.
"Apple has to find a way to get buyers interested in tablets again. Its quarterly iPad sales have declined year over year for the past six periods in a row. A bigger iPad, which would appeal to business users, could be a way to do that," Tibken said.
Other products rumored to be possible topics for the September iPhone event include a new operating systems for phones (iOS 9) and Mac (OS X El Capitan) and Apple TV, which has been the same hardware for the past three years.