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It’s Apple event time.
For the second year in a row, Apple will host a product launch in March. Last year’s event was all about the Apple Watch. This year’s will focus on two of Apple’s more established product lines — the iPhone and iPad. The company is expected to introduce a smaller iPhone and a smaller version of the iPad Pro. But don’t hold your breath for a new Apple Watch.
CNET will be on hand at Apple’s Cupertino, California, campus for Monday’s event, which kicks off at 10 a.m. PT. We’ll bring you all the news, photos and commentary.
You can check out CNET’s live blog here.
This will be the first time Apple has introduced an iPhone on two different occasions in the same year. (We still expect an iPhone 7 and its bigger sibling in the fall.) On tap Monday will be a 4-inch handset known unofficially at the moment as the “iPhone SE,” which will become the cheapest new phone in Apple’s repertoire.
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It’s expected to be like a combination of the iPhone 5S and iPhone 6S — a smaller package than Apple’s newest smartphones but with updated components and features like Apple Pay. What will be most interesting is the price for the iPhone SE. Some analysts are hoping for a $350 price tag for the device, but many others believe it will cost $450, the current price of the iPhone 5S.
The device comes as consumers are feeling ho-hum about phones. Sales aren’t growing as they used to, and market researcher IDC expects worldwide shipments to rise only 5.7 percent this year to 1.5 billion, down from a 28 percent jump just two years ago.
See also
- Everything we expect at Apple’s iPhone event on March 21
- iPhone SE: What we know about the ‘iPhone Mini’ expected on March 21
- Everything we know about Apple’s new iPad
- 7 new features coming to your iPhone and iPad with iOS 9.3
Apple’s other big product expected Monday is an updated 9.7-inch iPad. The company released its hulking 12.9-inch iPad Pro and petite 7.9-inch iPad Mini 4 last fall, but Apple didn’t update its mid-size tablet at that time. Look for additions similar to what we’ve seen in the iPad Pro, including Apple’s Smart Connector technology that supports an Apple-designed keyboard cover and an Apple Pencil stylus.
Other announcements Monday could be new Apple Watch bands and software. Apple also may use the event to introduce the iOS 9.3 mobile software, which has a feature called Night Shift that changes the display to make it “easier on your eyes” before you go to bed.
And importantly, the company likely will address the big elephant in the room — security. Apple will battle the US Department of Justice in a Riverside, California, court on Tuesday to determine whether Apple should help the FBI break into an iPhone used in a terrorist attack. Apple and the US government have been battling for weeks over the extent to which the company should help pull data from an iPhone used by one of the shooters in December’s San Bernardino, California, massacre.
Tune back to CNET for full coverage from Apple’s event.
