Apple to kick off year-end holiday quarter blitz with new iPhones, larger-screen watches

Apple Inc. will kick off a blitz of new products this week, ending a year of minor updates and setting the technology giant up for a potentially strong holiday quarter.

Through the rest of 2018, the world’s most valuable public company will launch three new iPhones, revamped iPad Pros, Apple Watches with larger screens, a new entry-level laptop with a sharper screen, a pro-focused Mac mini desktop computer and new accessories like the AirPower wireless charger.

The product launches will begin on Wednesday in the Steve Jobs Theater at the company’s Apple Park headquarters in Cupertino, California. The focus will be on Apple’s latest iPhones. It’s still the company’s most-important product, generating about two-thirds of revenue and spurring purchases of other Apple devices, along with services like app subscriptions, movie downloads, and iCloud storage. While smartphone market growth has slowed, higher prices have helped Apple keep expanding and it has gained market share.

Looming over Wednesday’s event will be tariffs imposed on products from China by U.S. President Donald Trump. Apple warned last week that this will raise prices for some of its popular offerings like the Watch and AirPods. Trump on Saturday urged the company to return its manufacturing to the U.S. Apple shares declined 1 percent to $219.11 at 11:50 a.m. in New York.

There will be a trio of new smartphone models that look and act like the iPhone X from last year: