Apple officially commenced worldwide retail availability for its flagship iPhone 16 lineup, the redesigned Apple Watch Series 10, and updated AirPods 4 on Friday, September 20. Eager consumers formed queues outside flagship Apple Store locations across approximately 58 countries and territories.
From Sydney and Tokyo to Beijing, Mumbai, Paris, London, and New York's Fifth Avenue, retail teams greeted the first walk-in customers and pre-order reservation holders with customary rounds of applause as glass doors opened at 8:00 a.m. local time.
Global Store Openings and Early In-Store Demand
The hardware cycle is highlighted by the standard iPhone 16 and larger iPhone 16 Plus, which incorporate the action button previously exclusive to Pro models, alongside the aerospace-grade titanium iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. The Pro models feature expanded display sizes of 6.3 inches and 6.9 inches with the thinnest borders on any Apple product to date.
A primary attraction for physical store shoppers was the tactile evaluation of the new Camera Control button. Located on the lower right flank of all four phone models, the sapphire crystal capacitive sensor responds to clicks, light presses, and swipes to manipulate zoom, exposure, and depth of field effortlessly.
“The enthusiasm we're seeing across our stores today is incredible. iPhone 16 is built from the ground up for Apple Intelligence and introduces intuitive creative tools like Camera Control.”
Camera Control Hardware and Apple Intelligence Anticipation
Under the hood, both devices run on custom 3-nanometer silicon—the A18 and A18 Pro chips—engineered specifically to handle local neural network processing. While the devices ship with iOS 18, consumer interest remains tightly tied to Apple Intelligence, the suite of on-device generative AI features scheduled to debut through the upcoming iOS 18.1 software release in October.
Alongside smartphones, the thinner Apple Watch Series 10 with a wide-angle OLED display and sleep apnea detection capabilities saw strong opening-day pickup volumes, reinforcing Wall Street expectations of a robust autumn upgrade cycle.
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