iPhone 16 upgrade exposed, how long will it take to squeeze out Apple's 'toothpaste”?

In September last year, Apple released the iPhone 15 series. Although this series was criticized by many netizens in terms of performance, imaging, etc. for having the old habit of "squeezing out toothpaste", friends who should buy it will still buy it.

Data from research organization BCI shows that the domestic mobile phone market will sell a total of 270 million smartphones in 2023, and Apple has become the best-selling mobile phone again. And the most amazing thing is that Apple, with the average selling price of all models exceeding 7,000 yuan, has overtaken vivo and returned to the first place.

At first glance, it seems that Apple is really awesome, but friends who follow the digital industry must know that Apple paid a heavy price for its sales last year. The price of the iPhone 15 series has actually been reduced several times last year, including huge price drops of thousands of yuan. Just today, Apple China’s official website released another New Year discount, and the iPhone 15 series has been reduced by another 500 yuan.

Image source: MacRumors

In fact, Apple’s sincerity may It’s far more than that. There are reports that Apple is finally going to take action on “golden memory”. Hey, MacBook Pro fans, don’t get excited. The 8GB of golden memory that you often complain about has been installed on the iPhone this time.

Haitong International technical analyst Jeff Pu said that Apple’s next-generation products, iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus models, will be equipped with 8GB RAM. In the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus 6GB of RAM has been increased. At the same time, the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus are also expected to support Wi-Fi 6E, a technology supported only by the Pro model in the iPhone 15 series.

Jeff Pu also said that this year’s iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will be equipped with A18 processor, larger memory and stronger performance, which will help improve The multi-tasking capabilities of the iPhone and the 6 GHz band of Wi-Fi 6E can also bring faster wireless transmission speeds to the iPhone.

Xiao Lei has also written about the iPhone 16 series’ breaking news analysis on screen size and appearance design before, so I won’t go into details here. Today I mainly want to talk to you about Apple’s “golden memory” that people love and hate.

Why is Apple so stingy with memory?

Before discussing this issue, I think we should make it clear that the experience of skipping challenges does not conflict with memory upgrades.

#Last year, Bob Borchers, Apple’s vice president of global product marketing, said in an interview that the 8GB of memory in Apple’s M3 MacBook Pro performed similarly to the 16GB of other systems. This incident was also selected into Lei Technology’s “Top Ten Famous Scenes in the Machine Industry in 2023”. You can click on the “Graphic and Text Hyperlink” or “Video Hyperlink” to learn more. . Although netizens directly started the group ridicule mode to complain about Apple's golden memory, they really have something to offer.

Photo source: Bilibili@林伊LYi

in 2019 In a speed test last year, the iPhone 11 Pro Max with 4GB of memory beat the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 with 12GB of memory. With "4>12" in front, "8=16" doesn't seem completely unacceptable.

Of course, one and a half tests does not mean anything. At best, it shows that the iPhone can indeed maximize the use of memory in terms of software and hardware deployment, and can even achieve leapfrog challenges. The performance of Android phones with large memory.

# With the confidence to leapfrog the challenge, Apple is naturally not in a hurry to add memory to the iPhone. From a more realistic perspective, not blindly increasing memory capacity can save costs for Apple, and it can also help Apple better determine the memory size that previous generations of iPhones need to be equipped with based on the progress of competitors.

This is why, from the 128MB of the original iPhone to the 4GB of the iPhone XS, even the latest iPhone 15/15 Plus is only 6GB. These are strictly controlled. product.

Perhaps it’s the pressure brought by competitors’ frequent 16GB large-memory mobile phones, or it’s the overwhelming public outcry among users. Apple still made concessions on the iPhone 15 Pro/Max and politely increased the memory to 8GB.

Made a clearer division between basic models and flagship models, which has the same purpose as other configuration divisions. Apple just wants to stimulate consumers to choose models with better performance and higher prices. Just like the high-priced mineral water/purified water placed in Starbucks, its function is not to make money by selling it, but to remind consumers that they can buy better products with just a few hundred million more dollars.

After seeing this, I believe everyone can understand why Apple is so stingy with memory? Especially the memory of the basic iPhone is all about profit, and everything else has to give way.

# Can the iPhone 8GB beat the 24GB iPhone?

Apple is still considering how many GB of memory is appropriate to increase, but its friends over there have already increased the memory of the phone to 24GB. At the end of 2023, Redmi K60 Ultra, OnePlus Ace2 Pro and relame GT5 will be released together, officially announcing the arrival of the 24GB era of smartphones.

Is it really necessary to have 24GB of mobile phone memory?

have! And the bigger, the better! Why do you say that? Memory is a configuration that many people often overlook when buying a mobile phone, but from the most basic principle, the speed of mobile phone operation depends on the processor. The CPU passes externally obtained data through the arithmetic unit internally, and finally outputs the result.

Source: 9to5Mac

CPU reads storage The priorities of the media are cache, memory, hard disk/flash memory, and the read and write speeds decrease step by step. The cache cost in the processor is very high, so the most cost-effective way is to increase the memory capacity. To put it simply, if you want to increase the running speed, expand the memory.

Going back to Xiao Lei’s point mentioned above, the iPhone’s experience of leapfrogging challenges is not only a stepping stone to its high sales, but also a stumbling block that hinders the iPhone’s pace of upgrading memory. .

Perhaps according to the current system and APP, there is no need to use such a large memory capacity, but with the continuous iteration of the software system, the requirements for hardware will inevitably Getting higher and higher, Windows has grown from floppy disks to tens of gigabytes in size, and the size of the software we use daily is also getting larger. Just like old phones from the past can't run the software on today's smartphones, it's only a matter of time before 24GB of memory becomes standard.

At this stage, Apple’s strict requirements and controls on software developers mean that the iPhone may not be far behind the 24GB phones of rival manufacturers in daily use, and can satisfy The usage requirements of most users, smoothness and purity have always been one of the main reasons why iPhone is so popular among users.

However, no matter how advanced the technology is, there is always an upper limit. There was a famous "Andy-Beale Law" in the technology circle in the 1990s. Andy refers to former Intel CEO Andy. Grove and Bill are former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. This means that the hardware improvements brought by companies like Intel will always be consumed by software companies like Microsoft.

In today's smartphone industry, no matter how large the memory is, it will be consumed one day. Apple's golden memory may be able to slow down the consumption, but it will certainly not be able to stop it. .

So for a long time in the future, we may still see Apple squeezing out toothpaste to upgrade the memory size, until one day the memory is really not enough, and then Apple It will also follow the old path of other competitors and pile up memory capacity.

How much toothpaste can Apple squeeze out?

In Shangyanshang, Apple squeezes out the upgrade of toothpaste The amplitude can indeed help it make better profits, but it will also hurt the hearts of many fruit fans.

Faced with the longest global smartphone replacement cycle of 51 months in history, other mobile phone manufacturers have chosen to innovate crazily, including materials, design, processors, imaging, and systems. , basically all the places where it can be rolled are rolled. Apple seems to be taking its time, but judging from its successive price cuts, Apple is not so stable.

Source: X

In a short period of time, the smartphone industry has It is difficult for the next epoch-making innovation direction to emerge. But for Apple, there are still many things that can be done, such as signal, charging speed, battery capacity, the overheating problem that occurred on the iPhone 15 Pro, and the iPhone 16 Ultra equipped with under-screen Face ID, etc., which is just a rough outline. You can list so many optimization directions just by thinking about it.

The product iteration direction that is almost uninfluenced by the outside world is certainly more in line with Apple’s long-term development strategy, but I don’t know if you have noticed that Apple’s brand appeal is far less than Before.

Even Vision Pro, which Apple has high hopes for, seems to have difficulty taking over the iPhone and becoming the next epoch-making product. Well-known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that Apple will produce 60,000 to 80,000 units of the Vision Pro when it is released on February 2. Since shipments are relatively small, he predicts the product will sell out shortly after launch.

Vision Pro’s high price, which easily exceeds RMB 10,000, is destined to be a niche market. Ordinary consumers may find it difficult to experience this before subsequent iterations are released. product. Whether it can become Apple's second growth curve, Xiao Lei is currently not optimistic.

The prospect of a recent innovative growth point is still unclear. How to maintain its existing advantages is believed to be Apple’s top problem next. The iPhone business accounts for the most revenue among all Apple’s business lines. The one with the highest ratio is also regarded by the capital market as Apple's fundamentals.

If Apple still adheres to the current long-term development pace, I am afraid that other mobile phone manufacturers will not let it comfortably win. There is a price for squeezing toothpaste. If you make money in the present, you may lose the future.

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