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It looks like Apple still isn't fixing one of the most frustrating problems with the iPhone — storage

Apple may not tackle one of the most-hated problems with the current iPhone on its next generation of models: low storage space. 

9to5Mac's Mark Gurman got his hands on what appear to be the internal components of the upcoming iPhone 6s. (We haven't been able to verify them ourselves, but Gurman has an extremely good track record for Apple leaks.)

tim cook
Deal with it. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

While crawling over the hardware, Gurman made a surprising discovery — Apple still isn't moving away from the low-end 16GB storage version. The current iPhone 6 is available in 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB options.

This comes after speculation that Apple's next-generation of iPhone models would start at 32GB of storage, which is much more reasonable for the number of apps now available and as users consume more and more high-quality media on their devices. 16GB just doesn't cut it anymore. 

So why has Apple opted to keep the 16GB option? Apple executive Phil Schiller addressed the issue of low storage space on a podcast with Apple writer John Gruber in June. He claimed that the rise of cloud storage services can help users use less space on their devices, lessening the need for high levels of storage.

"The belief is more and more as we use iCloud services for documents and our photos and videos and music," said Schiller, "that perhaps the most price-conscious customers are able to live in an environment where they don't need gobs of local storage because these services are lightening the load."

Of course, this isn't set in stone yet — a fair amount can change between now and autumn, the expected launch date of the iPhone 6S.

As Gurman notes: Apple has previously tested future iPhone hardware using smaller storage capacities prior to finalizing its production, so a last-minute upgrade to a higher capacity would not be unprecedented."

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