I know everyone is sad about this news, but there's something to be said about 1 GB.
First, it uses less power to keep 1 GB of RAM up than 2 GB or more.
Marginally. Very marginally. RAM neither is nor was a powerhungry thing. Not when considering cpu/gpu, screen, speakers, hell just about everything on the phone. It's probably dead last.
Second, not all operating systems use RAM the same. For instance, there was a point when you could buy a Windows XP laptop with 4 GB of memory, but due to how Windows worked, it could only effectively use 3.5 GB. Just because you throw RAM at something doesn't make it any more efficient if the OS can't handle it.
This is true... but there is no indication that iOS can't handle more than 1GB of RAM especially having gone 64bit.
Third, while more RAM is always nice as a developer... I'm not sure you need that much RAM as long as you are doing things correctly. Android probably needs more RAM because it's not being efficient (Java is a higher-level language that traditionally uses a lot of RAM). I have a pretty complex app that can chew up RAM and crash the app, but it's usually because of very large images or PDF files being used and I'm being sort of lazy with displaying that information.
You absolutely don't need more RAM. However, it is nice to have so that you aren't constantly reloading content. The biggest and most frequent example I have seen and experienced is safari tabs. I am constantly reloading tabs in safari on my iPhone. It's just the way it is. More ram would fix this.
I suspect that Apple will have a 1 GB model reserved for lower-end versions of the phone. Not every user needs tons of power and 1 GB is more than plenty for most users. For power users, I suspect they will add to the 5.5" version. Of course Apple isn't going to be getting into a spec war on this and won't announce how much RAM the phone has. The larger device will have a larger battery and have less of an issue driving the RAM.
Not sure about the 5.5" model getting more, but I agree with most of what was said here. For whatever reason, RAM has never been a reported stat on their iOS devices.
Those are my two cents at least. I don't think it has to do with being greedy, but has more to do with making an affordable option that will last. Apple has a really good track record of supporting devices for a long time. Google with Android device... not so much.
Bringing up Google here is non sequitur. Apple has made decisions for any number of reasons. Their costs to throw in 2GB would be marginal. But they have always charged a premium for additional ram. Look at their desktops and laptops. If I had to guess they are making a compromise between build cost and user experience. If user experience is good enough and they are able to save a buck or two off every unit, why not? over the life of the product thats a couple million in savings (or profit, however you want to look at it). Same goes for onboard storage by the way. 16GB, what is base now was the top end of the original iPhone, which launched SEVEN years ago. Keeping 16GB as the base model has everything to do with higher profit margins, If people are willing to buy it, why not? Let them micro manage their files, pictures, texts, etc. because they will. I am not even going to get into how ridiculous it is to charge $100 for a mere 16GB of additional storage.
