Apple just finished its fall iPhone launch, where new iPhones, Apple Watches, and iPads were all announced, reported CNBC.
Apple’s fall launches have become its most-hyped event of the year out of all of its product launches. They precede the busy holiday shopping season and typically carry some of the largest launches each year. Last year saw the early launch of the new Apple Watch in September and then the release of the iPhone 12 in October, which introduced 5G capabilities with an all-new design.
With the popularity of Apple products in the midst of a largely stay-at-home economy due to the pandemic, this year’s was highly anticipated, and it delivered big. Apple reported a 50% year over year increase in iPhone revenue last quarter, with “other products” such as watches and AirPods up 40% year over year.
The new iPhone 13 will feature a smaller notch on the upper portion of the screen for its facial recognition technology, as well as a larger battery that will supply between an hour and a half to two and a half hours more of battery life. The cameras are arranged diagonally on the 13, with a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens that can capture 50% more light, and an ultra-wide lens.
Internally, the iPhone 13 will sport a new chip designed by Apple, the A15 Bionic, as well as six cores with a specific part dedicated to running artificial intelligence algorithms. Screens will be brighter, and the phones will come in 5.4 inch and 6.1 inch models with five color options.
The iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max both feature longer battery life, three cameras, including a zoom lens, and a one-terabyte storage option will be available. New phones will go on sale on September 24th.
The new Apple Watch Series 7 was also announced, featuring a 20% bigger screen and a greater resistance to cracks, as well more rapid charging capabilities than the 6. The software has been redesigned for the 7 so that more information can be viewed on the screen, and several new watch faces have been created for it. There is currently no firm launch date as production delays have affected the release, but it will be available for purchase later in the fall.
Tim Cook, Apple CEO, announced a new iPad that will have an A13 processor as well as an improvement on the front-facing camera. The camera is 12 megapixels, has a wider lens, and can work on an LTE wireless connection, improvements that all play into the increased use of video conferencing. It will also have 64GB of memory and goes on sale next week.
Additionally, a new iPad Mini was announced, with an 8.3 inch screen, smaller bezels, and no fingerprint sensor on the front. It has a 12-megapixel camera on the back and stereo speakers, as well as compatibility with a USB-C connector instead of Apple’s Lightning connector.
Apple has previously taken the opportunity of its major fall iPhone launch to announce climate policies, such as becoming carbon neutral throughout the supply chain within the next ten years, but had no such announcement this year.
ESGA Invests in Apple as an Environmental Leader
Apple is a forward-thinking company that invests in positive environmental changes and practices while providing some of the most best-selling phones and technology.
The American Century Sustainable Equity ETF (ESGA) invests in Apple and similarly minded companies. It measures the ESG performance of a company, weighing environmental impact as one of the major factors for qualification. It goes a step beyond, though, and it also looks at the other aspects of ESG, such as turnover of employees and corporate leadership, to name just a few. The fund invests in U.S. large-cap companies with large growth and value potential that rank highly on ESG metrics.
ACI’s proprietary model assigns a score to each security for financial metrics and a separate score for ESG metrics, then combines them for an overall score.
The highest-scoring securities are selected within each sector, creating a portfolio with strong performance and higher ESG ratings than the stocks in the S&P 500 Index.
The fund is a semi-transparent ETF, meaning that allocations are disclosed on a quarterly basis, not daily. As of its last disclosure, ESGA held companies like Apple (APPL), Alphabet (GOOGL), and Microsoft (MSFT).
ESGA has a total annual fund operating expense of 0.39% and total assets of $148.5 million.
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