Disclosure: I own a small number of shares in Apple.
Apple is reportedly dropping the 16GB option for iPhones when the “iPhone 6s” is released this September, according to sources with Made In China Gadget (MICGadget). The base “iPhone 6s” model will start at 32GB of internal storage. MICGadget’s unnamed sources -- who work for Apple's Taiwan-based manufacturing partner Foxconn -- said that the packaging for the "iPhone 6s" and "iPhone 6s Plus" do not have stickers that say “16GB.”
"We can't tell you [what Foxconn] department we received information [from], but we can [say] that the packaging of the new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus [do not] have [stickers] with '16GB capacity,'" wrote Chan Zhuang of MICGadget. Apparently, the stickers on the packages say: 32GB, 64GB and 128GB.
This is not the first time that Apple was rumored to be dropping the 16GB storage capacity option for the “iPhone 6s.” Last month, The Korea Times reported that Apple is negotiating a higher capacity memory deal with Samsung for the "iPhone 6s" and "iPhone 6s Plus" smartphones. The Apple iPhone 6 uses NAND chips that are supplied by Toshiba (50%), SanDisk (20%) and SK hynix (30%), according to Credit Suisse. The reason why Samsung was not selected as a memory supplier for the Apple iPhone 6 is because of its high prices.
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus devices sell with storage capacities of 16GB, 64GB and 128GB. Unfortunately, iOS 8 consumes about 20% of the 16GB iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. This means that less than 13GB is available for music, movies, photos and apps. Samsung's flagship smartphones also usually shipped with 16GB of internal memory, but it supported microSD cards with up to 128GB of additional storage. However, Samsung decided to avoid microSD card support for the new Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge devices. The storage capacity of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge starts at 32GB -- which is another reason why it seems likely that Apple will push for higher base storage capacities.
When John Gruber of Daring Fireball asked Apple Senior Vice President of Marketing Phil Schiller why new iPhones do not have higher storage capacities, he said that iCloud makes up for it. "The belief is more and more as we use iCloud services for documents and our photos and videos and music, that perhaps the most price-conscious customers are able to live in an environment where they don't need lots of local storage because these services are lightening the load," said Schiller during the interview.
What are some of the other expected "iPhone 6s" and "iPhone 6s Plus" specifications? The "iPhone 6s" and "iPhone 6s Plus" is expected to ship with an A9 processor, Force Touch, 2GB RAM, NFC, a faster LTE modem and a 12-megapixel camera with 4K video recording. When Apple sells the new iPhone, it will likely charge an extra $100 for the 64GB model and $200 for the 128GB model over the base model.
Another rumor suggests that Apple may actually keep 16GB storage as an option, but it seems likely that the smaller storage option will be for a device called the “iPhone 6c.” The specifications of the “iPhone 6c” is believed to include an A7 processor and a 4-inch display. The “iPhone 6c” will be announced this September or Q1 of 2016.
iPhones that have a smaller storage capacity will benefit from a feature that is going to be released with iOS 9. iOS 9 is able to temporarily delete and reinstall apps with its data to make room for software updates. Here is a tweet that an Apple developer posted with a screenshot of the new app deletion feature:
Well this is new. pic.twitter.com/BQKMDn5D6c
— Kaleb Butt (@Kaleb_Butt) June 23, 2015
The "iPhone 6s" and "iPhone 6s Plus" is expected to be announced on September 18th, which is when pre-orders will begin. And it will be available for sale on September 25th, according to a leaked e-mail from Vodafone via Mobile News.
What are your thoughts about Apple increasing the base storage capacities of the new iPhones? Please leave a comment!
