The 11th Hour Dispatch — Wednesday, September 12, 2018
BIG BUSINESS
Apple’s annual press event took place this afternoon live from its campus that looks like it was yanked straight out of a Black Mirror episode. If you followed our live tweet thread, you’ll know it was…less than eventful. There were a few interesting updates to the iPhone and Apple Watch, but really all we came out of it with was three new iPhone models and a skinnier Apple Watch. Here are the main products that were announced:
- The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, new versions of the iPhone X but with feature upgrades, an absent home button, two 12 megapixels cameras, and (arguably the coolest announcement of the entire nearly two hour event) adjustable depth-of-field photography features. The 5.8-inch XS runs $999. The 6.5-inch iPhone XS Max, which has a larger display but a pretty similar sized body, retails for $1,099.
- The iPhone XR, a 6.1-inch “lower-end” phone with an LCD screen and a wide selection of colors. It also doesn’t feature a home button, and it only has one camera rather than two like the XS and XS Max. It will only run you $799.
- The Apple Watch Series 4, a new and improved version of the beloved smartwatch. This version has a 30% larger edge-to-edge display, but it has a slimmer body than other models. They kept hitting on “haptic feedback” as a key feature of this model, so I’ll take their word for it. The main announcement with the Apple Watch was that it can detect falls, even going as far as calling emergency services automatically if you’re immobile for one minute, and it has a built-in FDA-approved EKG feature to detect heart issues. The new series will run you $499 for built-in connectivity and $399 for the standard version.
Other than those products — and the announcement of its recycling program GiveBack, which will purchase old Apple devices and recycle if not usable — there wasn’t much else other than yet another new operating system. We were personally really hoping for some details on its upcoming streaming service, which the company has more or less been tightlipped on up to this point, but not a word was dedicated to that. Guess we’ll just have to wait even more. Ugh.
BINGE WATCH
Netflix has acquired Jennifer Aniston’s dramedy film Dumplin’. The film, an adaptation of Julie Murphy’s New York Times best-selling novel, stars Aniston and Patti Cake$ star Danielle Macdonald, who plays a plus-size daughter of a former beauty queen who joins her mother’s pageant in protest and accidentally starts a revolution in her small Texas town. The film features brand spankin’ new versions of classic Dolly Parton songs in collaboration with Sia and Miranda Lambert, as well as six new songs from Parton and Linda Perry. Alison Krauss, Elle King, Mavis Staples, and Rhonda Vincent also have tracks on the motion picture soundtrack, which sounds like it’s shaping up to be an epic jam. The film will come out later this year and will also debut in select U.S. theaters.
YOUNG MONEY
Snap’s user numbers are plummeting, as is its stock price. Today alone, it closed the day down 6.98% at $9.20. Over the last month, the company’s price has fallen a devastating 26%. Snap’s stock price could dip as low as $5 in the next year, according to Richard Greenfield, an analyst at BTIG. While not as low, Jefferies doesn’t have a great outlook for it either. The firm’s Brent Thill lowered his price target from $14 to $11. Thill and Brian Fitzgerald, another Jeffries analyst, stated that, “Daily average users and time spent are both trending down in the third quarter in the US, UK, Spain, France, Germany, and Australia based on our third-party data analysis of Android usage.” The pair also noted that because the nature of Snapchat is dependent on multiple users conversing with each other, users are leaving faster than they would from a platform not as closely tied to social interaction. If there’s no one to send stupid pictures to, there is no reason to be on Snapchat. Because of dwindling user numbers, experts are also concerned about monetization. If there’s no one using the app, there’s no way to get that sweet, sweet ad money.
NOTHIN’ BUT ‘NET
You’ll be able to order live Christmas trees through Amazon this holiday season because who needs family time.
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