Indian GPS On iPhones: In A First, Apple Unveils iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max With NavIC Integration

Global tech giant Apple on Tuesday (12 September) launched its new iPhone 15 series of smartphones at the the Wonderlust event at the company's Cupertino-based headquarters.

The event featured the launch of 4 new iPhones - iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max along with the new Apple Watch series and AirPods Pro with USB-C functionality.

Further, in a first for iPhones, the two pro models also feature support for NavIC, India's own GPS system.

The NavIC, short for Navigation with Indian Constellation, is a regional navigation satellite system set up by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

NavIC was erstwhile known as Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).

NavIC is designed with a constellation of 7 satellites and a network of ground stations operating 24 x 7.

Three satellites of the constellation are placed in geostationary orbit, at 32.5°E, 83°E and 129.5°E respectively, and four satellites are placed in inclined geosynchronous orbit with equatorial crossing of 55°E and 111.75°E respectively, with inclination of 29° (two satellites in each plane), according to the ISRO.

The ground network for NavIC consists of control centre, precise timing facility, range and integrity monitoring stations, two-way ranging stations, etc.

NavIC signals are designed to provide user position accuracy better than 20m and timing accuracy better than 50ns.

NavIC SPS signals are interoperable with the other global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals namely GPS, Glonass, Galileo and BeiDou.

The base models of this year's iPhones - iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 plus -have received an essential upgrade in terms of display. The two phones now come with Dynamic Island technology, which replaces the traditional notch found on the iPhone 14 Pro models.

The iPhone 15s ship with the A16 bionic processor — the same chip used in the iPhone 14 Pro — with a neural engine that handles more complicated tasks, such as live voicemail transcriptions on device, according to the company.

The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models feature a titanium chassis that is not only lighter but also more durable.

Both the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are powered by A17 Pro, the industry’s first 3-nanometer chip, as per the company.

"A17 Pro brings improvements to the entire chip, including the biggest GPU redesign in Apple’s history. The new CPU is up to 10 percent faster with microarchitectural and design improvements, and the Neural Engine is now up to 2x faster, powering features like autocorrect and Personal Voice in iOS 17," the company said.

"The pro-class GPU is up to 20 percent faster and unlocks entirely new experiences, featuring a new 6-core design that increases peak performance and energy efficiency. Now with hardware-accelerated ray tracing — which is 4x faster than software-based ray tracing — iPhone 15 Pro offers smoother graphics, as well as more immersive AR applications and gaming experiences," it added.

Additionally, Apple has also introduced USB-C charging ports in its latest iPhone 15 models, which officially ends the run of the company's proprietary lightning port after around 11 years.