Apple launches new iPhone models.

Apple has unveiled its latest iPhone 5S and low-cost iPhone 5C this week, bringing months of speculation to an end.

The announcement of the refreshed iPhone 5S, and the new low cost iPhone 5C is a bid to win over new buyers to try and stem the company’s decline in global sales, mostly at the expense of major rival Samsung.

The iPhone 5S and 5C will be on sale in the US, UK, China, Australia and Canada from 20 September. Noticeably, this will be the first time that China will be included in the initial wave of sales. China is seen as a key market for any smartphone manufacturer, and with most companies providing low cost smartphones, the iPhone 5C is seen as an attempt to get a foothold in the Chinese market place.

Apple’s premium iPhone 5S introduces a fingerprint scanner built into the phone’s main button to identify the user, and will also be used to provide authentication for purchases through Apple’s iTunes and App Store. The iPhone 5C, comes with a plastic rather than metal back, and comes in a range of colours. This is a complete change in strategy for Apple, which has not launched to different types of handset at the same time before.

Here in the UK, all the major mobile network operators have confirmed that they will be offering both the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C. However, it is understood that O2 won’t be offering 4G contracts on their iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C tariffs.

This has all come, in what has been a busy few weeks in the mobile market with Google announcing its latest operating system and the buyout of Nokia by Microsoft. This will all begin to fuel the latest handset race between the major manufacturers, with Samsung due to launch its Galaxy Note 3 on 17 September.
The mobile market really is heating up and has already become the fastest growing market in history!