Apple unveils the Watch, larger iPhones at star-studded event

Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during an Apple event announcing the iPhone 6 and the Apple Watch at the Flint Center in Cupertino, California, September 9, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

BUY WITH BIGGER PHONES

In a rare move for the company, Apple had planned on livecasting its entire event online, with a simultaneous translation in Chinese. But the livestream went down about a half-hour in, prompting many users to take to Twitter to express their frustrations.

Also on Tuesday, the company took the wraps off a larger, 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus. They will support more than 200 telecoms carriers worldwide, including all three in China - a key growth market for the company.

It also introduced a new mobile payments service dubbed "Apple Pay." Each phone will come equipped with its new payments service, which launches in the United States next month and allows users to pay for items in stores with their phones instead of physically presenting their credit or debit cards.

Launch partners include Walt Disney Co, McDonald's and Whole Foods. The move gives Apple access to a trove of data on how consumers shop in brick and mortar stores, where more than 90 percent of U.S. retail sales are still conducted.

Barclays Capital said in a Sept 5 note that the mobile payments feature would give Apple "one of the largest sets of consumer transaction data in the US".

Each new iPhone will come with a "secure element" chip and a near-field communications, or NFC, antenna.

Ben Milne, CEO of internet payment network Dwolla, said Apple had created a smooth user experience with Apple Pay, but wanted to hear a lot more about how Apple will tackle the aging payments infrastructure.

"The old architecture that payments is driven on is not up to snuff for the future they want to build," Milne said.

He added that Apple Pay will get some level of mass adoption based on the number of iPhones out there, but Apple will have to tackle the high costs of payment processing to make its new feature more widespread.