Dubai: Smartphone users in the UAE are likely to get their hands on Apple’s next-generation phone this month, if the anticipated launch goes ahead on Wednesday, September 9.
Apple is expected to unveil alongside Apple TV its latest handset, which will likely be called iPhone 6s or iPhone7, during a special press briefing in San Francisco, California on Wednesday. If the launch goes ahead, the rumour mill has it that the new phone will hit the retail stores by September 18.
“The UAE is one of the top countries on the list to get newly released Apple devices”
-Nicolai Solling, Help AG
The first few countries that are likely to get their hands on the new product include the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Japan, United Kingdom and Singapore.
Retailers in the UAE kept mum on the release date, but Nicolai Solling, director of technology services at Help AG, said that if there’s going to be a product announcement, UAE consumers won’t have to wait very long.
Apple often makes a big product announcement during the month of September, with the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 5s and 5c introduced in September last year. The tech giant has distributed invitations to the media for an event on Wednesday, with the now famous tagline “Hey Siri, give us a hint”.
Less than a month after the global launch in 2014, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus hit the retail stores in the UAE.
“Going by the release strategy we have seen from Apple in recent years, we can see that the tech giant clearly views the UAE as a priority market. This is why the release cycles have been shortened, making newly launched Apple products rapidly available in the market,” Solling told Gulf News.
Solling said that Apple now considers the UAE as one of its “prime markets”, with official reports placing the various iPhone models in the top for smartphone popularity in the country.
“In the past, due to the release cycles, the UAE was not the first country on the list to receive new devices, so our market was flooded with grey devices. However, nowadays, it is no longer the case and the UAE is one of the top countries on the list to get newly released Apple devices.
According to figures released by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) in the UAE, Apple’s iPhone 5 was the most popular smartphone in the UAE during the fourth quarter of 2014.
Solling, however, warned iPhone fans against jailbreaking their devices, citing that the practice could lead to a loss of warranty and make them prone to mobile data and financial theft.
Help AG’s partner Palo Networks found out recently that some 225,000 Apple account credentials had been stolen after the devices were “jailbroken”.
“[The data theft was] tied to jailbroken devices. This information could be used to bypass payment walls on the App Store and inside third-party apps. With Apple moving into payment devices and becoming a payment provider for third-party systems, leaked iTunes credentials can lead to theft of money from the individual,” said Solling.
