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Apple's iPhone 6 event on Tuesday was as big and as epic as expected. But amidst the blockbuster announcements of the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Pay, and the Apple Watch, the company also quietly killed off a few products and longstanding traditions. It put the heat on some of its biggest rivals. We're looking at everything Apple killed here.
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First, let's start with internal products and traditions Apple killed:
REUTERS/Stephen LamEddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Service, introduces Apple Pay.
iNames. The company's two newest products aren't called iPay or iWatch; they're "Apple Pay" and "Apple Watch." (Or technically, "?Pay" and "?Watch.")
There hasn't been an official explanation for the change in naming style. Our guess: It's a way to move on from the Steve Jobs era. CEO Tim Cook called this a "new chapter" for Apple. And the easiest way to underscore that new chapter is to drop the iNames, which started when Steve Jobs came back to the company.
Feng Li/Getty ImagesR.I.P. 3.5-inch iPhones
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Small iPhones. Starting next week, Apple's iPhone 5, 5S and 5C will a bit be cheaper. But starting next month, owners of those phones will start to realize that Apple is quietly pushing them out of the picture, as only the biggest phones are capable of the best tricks, including Apple Pay, and some of the fitness features like measuring one's elevation (barometers are only in the 6/6 Plus products). Apple chose not to upgrade the internals of the iPhone 5S or 5C, meaning this could be the last time Apple will sell 4-inch phones.
iPod Classic. It's been rumored for years, but it finally happened on Tuesday. If you visit the iPod portion of Apple's website, you'll see options for the iPod shuffle, iPod nano, and iPod touch - but no iPod Classic. That music player, which was the last Apple device to feature the original iPod's iconic click wheel, is no longer available in the Apple Store. The biggest model of that device offered 160 GB of space.
Old iPhone advertising. Apple once advertised the 4-inch screen found in the iPhone 5, iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C as the "ideal" size for one's hand and thumb. Apple said the phone should be able to fit in the cradle of one's hand, and the thumb should be able to reach any part of the screen. That's why Apple called the iPhone 5 "a dazzling display of common sense." The ad campaign was clearly pointed at larger Android phones, which Apple considered inferior at the time since they weren't easy to use - but with the announcement of the much bigger iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus handsets, Apple will likely never acknowledge those critical videos ever again.AppleThe iPad Mini? If people buy the iPhone 6 Plus, are they going to want the iPad Mini? We'll find out, but they seem like similar products, and there will likley be a loss of some iPad Mini sales.
Now, let's take a look at some of the outside products and services Apple is putting pressure on or killing entirely.
The credit card. Amidst a slew of blockbuster hardware announcements, one software announcement will likely create the biggest impact in the immediate and long-term: Apple Pay. Prior to Tuesday, the term "mobile payments" would make some people roll their eyes, or groan, or laugh, since all "solutions" up to that point seemed to be anything but. Apple Pay, on the other hand, transcends the limitations and physical inadequacies of credit and debit cards to make transactions more secure, but also obscenely easy. Credit cards, debit cards, and wallets: You're on watch.SamsungThe Samsung Gear SSamsung. Though the South Korean company is constantly experimenting with new designs for its smartphones and wrist wearables, the company's most popular designs - specifically, the Galaxy S devices and Galaxy Note phablets - are about to get some extreme competition from Apple, now that it offers comparable screen sizes.Samsung has been experimenting with smart watches, but none have caught on. It has released 6 smart watches in the past year. And now it's going to see the smart watch market frozen as everyone waits for the Apple Watch in early 2015.LGThe LG WatchOther smartwatches. About two years ago, after The New York Times first broke the news of Apple's plans to produce a James Bond-esque wrist wearable, every consumer tech company you could think of announced its own plans to build watches. Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Nokia, LG, Swatch, Timex, and countless others have either released smartwatches or stated their intentions to enter the budding genre, but the Apple Watch is trying to add technology to a luxury watch instead of shrinking down a smartphone to fit on one's wrist. Like Samsung, these other companies will almost certainly reconsider their own designs now that Apple has pointed out the flaws in those designs.Cameras and camcorders. By now, most people use their smartphones to take pictures, since they're significantly lighter than cameras and camcorders and can do so much more. Thanks to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, however, Apple has pushed the already-impressive camera from the iPhone 5S even further, finally adding optical image stabilization (OIS) into the iPhone 6 Plus. With quality photos in any light condition, a new-and-improved autofocus function and the ability to offset the user's physical shaking thanks to OIS - as well as better video features like extreme slo-mo and significantly improved face detection - consumers will feel less compelled to spend several hundred dollars on a standalone still or video camera.
