Apple to hold event on Sept. 7; new iPhone, Watch expected

NEW YORK — Apple has made it official: the company will be holding a press event on Sept 7 in San Francisco where the presumption is it will unveil both a new iPhone and a new Apple Watch.

Unlike prior invitations to Apple special events there were no obvious clues to what Tim Cook & Co. might be cooking up. Of course, the very date of the event, Sept. 7, may be a nice nod to the long rumored iPhone 7, of which there is likely to be more than one model, perhaps an iPhone 7 and an iPhone 7 Plus.

The venue, the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, is the same location where Apple has hosted its last few product launches.

Much of the speculation is that the new iPhone will sport relatively modest changes, aside from the removal of the headphone jack, considered controversial. Such a move would either require the use of wireless Bluetooth headphones, or a headphone that connects to Apple's proprietary Lightning port.

New phones should be faster, may come in additional colors, and may feature a second rear camera sensor (for low light shooting), at least on a larger Plus version. And the phones will run the already announced (and available as a beta) iOS 10 software update, which, among other new features, fancies up its iMessage app.

Creative Strategies analyst Tim Bajarin, a longtime Apple watcher, told USA TODAY recently that Apple may hold off on what people would considerer a major upgrade until 2017, the iPhone's tenth anniversary. "I wouldn't be surprised if Apple skips 8 and 9 and introduces the iPhone 10 for the anniversary," he said.

Apple's iPhone buzz fades as old models keep ticking

Apple has sold more than 1 billion iPhones since Steve Jobs launched the original iPhone in 2007.

How an iPhone 7 upgrade is ultimately received by consumers and pundits will go a long way toward determining how many of the new phones will actually be sold. With a lot of saturation and the lack of many dramatic innovations in the smartphone space, consumers have been holding onto their handsets longer.

Sales of iPhones have slumped during the previous two quarters, though Apple still sold 40.4 million in the most recent quarter, which while representing a 14.9% year-over-year decline, are still an awful lot of phones.

Relatively low expectations could play into Apple's favor, of course, especially if CEO Cook pull off something unexpected and delivers more than the rumors suggest.

We’ll see. USA TODAY will be on the scene.

Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow USA TODAY Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig on Twitter.