Brief - The Hustle

Apple’s latest drop: Upgrades across 3 flagship products, and a big security fix

Written by Rob Litterst | Sep 15, 2021 9:29:26 AM

Apple’s devices raked in a whopping $64B in revenue last quarter, with massive numbers across each of its 4 hardware categories:

  • iPhone: $39.6B
  • Wearables: $8.8B
  • Mac: $8.2B
  • iPad: $7.4B

Yesterday, Apple held its 3rd product event of the year and released new models in 3 of those 4 product lines:

iPhone 13

Tim Cook called this “the most pro iPhone ever.” We’re not sure what that means, but the new model offers:

  • Brighter screens for better reading outside
  • Faster screens for better scrolling
  • Longer batteries (1.5-2.5 more hours per charge than last year’s models)

Apple Watch Series 7

Marques Brownlee described the watch upgrades as “pretty minor,” but updates include:

  • 20% more screen area than last year’s models
  • 33% faster charging
  • Dust resistance

iPad and iPad Mini

Apple’s biggest iPad upgrade came to its smallest model, the iPad Mini, which now includes:

  • Touch ID built into the power button
  • 5G compatibility
  • Upgraded selfies with Centerstage

Most importantly, and unrelated to the event, Apple released an urgent security update to fix a vulnerability that allowed Israel’s NSO group to access users’ devices.

If you’re reading this on an Apple device — we’ll understand if you take a break to download that update.