Yesterday, Apple held its most important product event yet, at the new $5bn Steve Jobs Theatre built in memory of the late founder. The tech leader revealed a slew of new products, specifically the much anticipated iPhone X to commemorate the 10year anniversary of the iPhone.
The new, top-of-the-line model is Apple’s first radical redesign of its smartphone in recent years, with face-scanning technology that allows you to unlock your phone by merely looking at it. But the device also comes with a new hefty price tag of $1,000, which will ultimately test how much consumers are willing to shell out for the latest technology.
While they made loads of other jaw dropping announcements, we take a keen look at how these newly launched products would be accepted by the Ghanaian people.
iPhone X
CEO Tim Cook said iPhone X is “the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone.”
iPhone X has no home button and will unlock using facial recognition called Face ID. Face ID will replace Touch ID. On the new model, users will now have to wake up their iPhone by swiping up instead of hitting the home button. The new phone is also water and dust resistant with glass on the front and the back and surgical-grade stainless steel bands around the sides, making it the most durable iPhone ever.
But it retails at a whooping $1,000 which at the current rate is about 4,400Ghs. This is record breaking for the Ghanaian mobile retail sector. Are Ghanaians ready to splurge this high amount of money on a new piece of technology? My verdict would be, YES! The iPhone 7 raised the same question, yet, a good percentage of iPhone users in Ghana use the iPhone 7.
You can also trust the boys at Circle, and the Tonaton retailers to get the product and subsidize the price for apple fanatics that are cash strapped. I see it going for about 3,500-4,000Ghs on the Tonaton’s and OLX’s.
iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus
It’s the first smartphone designed for Augmented Reality (AR) and the first iPhone to support wireless charging. The camera specs are much better with 12MP dual cameras and all-new sensors, deeper pixels and optical image stabilization. iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are also sealed for water and dust resistance.
With the iPhone 8, consumers can shoot 4k video on it but this presents a big worry for me. With a screen this awesome, questions are raised as to what happens when the screen cracks or shatters? Users in Ghana may see themselves paying as much as 1,000 – 1,500 Ghs to replace their screens which is almost half the price of the phone itself.
It also retails at about $700, which comes to just above 3,000Ghs, still a big ask for my Ghanaian people.
Apple Watch Series 3 with Built in Cellular
Apple’s watchOs 4 has better heart rate monitoring and cellular data built in, allowing consumers to make calls directly from their watch. The new watch will also have a dual-core processor and Siri can now talk back to it. The device will also notify you when it detects an elevated heart rate when you don’t appear to be active and can detect arrhythmia, when your heart beats irregularly.
This new watch in some way is your personal doctor. But with these advancements, I wonder if Ghanaian networks will be supportive. Will they support cellular on the Apple watch? If they do support, will network quality remain the same? These are important questions that we in Ghana need to be asking.
The retail cost is averagely $400, which for the Ghana’s elite, isn’t too much of a big ask.
Yet again, we look at these releases with the average Ghanaian in mind, and while Apple has yet again, proved themselves to be leaders in this OEM thing, we continue to hope that one day, there’d be a $100 iPhone, for the regular you and me.
