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Apple's Base 128GB iPhone Storage Tier Needs to Go
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If Apple will increase their device storage, I would love an automatic adjustment for iCloud. After 10 years I am still at 2TB for 9.99.... I am tied of Apples upgrade tier system to get me to waste money.
I understand their need to generate revenue for their stock holders, but adding also external storage slots back into the iPhone would be amazing. We don't have to be treated like children to their corporate greed.
I understand their need to generate revenue for their stock holders, but adding also external storage slots back into the iPhone would be amazing. We don't have to be treated like children to their corporate greed.
If you have a 1tb mac and 1 TB iPhone, you can't do local backups. Evil, lol.
I'm not convinced people need more than 16GB. We should have Apple switch to that size so that people start to use iCloud properly.
Except for the fact that there are plenty of people who don’t take pictures, don’t store music or media locally, or use a different device (like a Mac) for local file storage and management.
There are also plenty of people, more than you are imagining I’m sure, that literally just use their phone casually for social media and web browsing and as a regular phone. These people are also unlikely to be using anywhere close to 128 GB.
We can argue about upgrade prices, being too expensive, completely agree there. But 128GB is a fine starting storage for a phone or tablet.
And unlike 8 GB of ram, which actually did seem to be falling behind their competitors, 128 GB is right in line with what the vast majority of Android phone manufacturers are selling.
The Brand new Samsung Galaxy S25 just introduced last week… Starts with 128 GB of storage on the regular models. The 256GB starting “Ultra” is actually more expensive than the 256 GB iPhone 16 Pro Max if you can believe it.
And I highly doubt the majority of Samsung users are paying them for any extra storage, yet 128 GB is the default.
Marging pinching? I'll assume you meant margin pinching but that would mean they did so to narrow the pricing margins on the phones. That's not the result one would expect.
Perhaps you meant price or product pruning? If so, then yes that was likely part of it but would’ve been even more so had they dropped the 128GB version for both the Pro and Pro Max instead of just on the Pro Max.
.... That's what IBM began in the early 90's. What was once the clear #1 technology company in the world stopped innovating with products and derived more and more of their revenue from services. They were wooed by increased margins selling services into a broad install base. Once the base began to lose market share, the company fell quickly from its perch as a technology leader and innovator. They've wobbled ever since, but hey..... got COBOL?
I still have more than half of 128GB free even with local music. I offload my photos to my computer and don't use iCloud anything.
I think you're not thinking this through - 256 GB as base storage means the base price will go up, this is how the industry works unfortunately.
128GB is more than enough for me. But I treat my iPhone like a Mac accessory...
Sure you sound like those defending macs with 8GbB RAM. Those who can get by (and I’m not sure why anyone buying a premium phone should be content with ‘getting by’) evidently don’t need a smartphone but just a cheap feature phone.
What a profoundly stupid article.
128 is obviously fine for many, many use cases, which just makes it obvious this is purely cynical rage bait for the clicks. Nice one MR! What crap you've wrought today.
128 is obviously fine for many, many use cases, which just makes it obvious this is purely cynical rage bait for the clicks. Nice one MR! What crap you've wrought today.
It doesn’t mean that at all. Macs didn’t go up in price when the base RAM was doubled from 8 to 16 GB. In fact some went down in price (Mac mini, at least in some markets). Apple would be silly to increase prices further as it’s already suffering a decline in sales which would be further accelerated should prices increase. And the same applies to an ill judged decision to keep the current substandard storage options for much longer.
Whoever the actual quote comes from, the magic 640k figure comes from the IBM PC and the issue was that somebody decided that was enough when designing the IBM PC, rather than going the extra mile to make the full, potential 1MB accessible. Point is, it was originally about missing out on 360k potential address space rather than failing to foresee the "8 Gigabytes isn't enough for a Mac" future.
Not sure this is a fair comparison, Apple was way (way) behind industry standards for base amounts of RAM, all too happy to gouge its customers for memory upgrades - and they caved in to support their AI features right off the bat on every new model.
256 GB of storage on phones is hardly the default everywhere.
It’s not about free upgrades, it’s about getting fair value for the money we spend. The 128GB tier is there to pad Apples margins with our money, nothing more. There’s basically no cost difference between offering 128GB and 256GB. However by offering 128GB, Apple encourages people to pay extra for higher storage tiers (nearly 100% profit for Apple), upgrade their phone earlier, and/or pay for iCloud.
Apple has the highest market cap in the world, largely based on their revenue and profit margin. They are now making $120 billion in profit annually. That is money customers (we) have given Apple.
If you look at profit growth vs user growth, it’s pretty obvious that Apple is taking more $ per user every single year. Every year they want to dig their hands a little deeper into your pocket. It’s ok to not be ok with that.
If you don’t need 256GB, that’s fine, you still deserve it based on the how much you’re paying for your phone and the real difference in cost for 128GB vs 256GB. That extra storage would increase the resale value of your phone and/or allow you to keep your phone longer, saving you money. Apple would continue to be fine with one of the highest profit margins in the industry.
Apple is an industry leader. There’s no pressure on others to do better if Apple doesn’t. Samsung, for example, likes profits too. They used to offer micro-sd support, but nixed it when they realized they could successfully copy Apple’s profit play on up charging for storage.
The cost of RAM was way higher back then. And the iPhone was unique in the early days. Today all phones come with 120hz screen and lots of storage space as a standard. Apple could sell the 128GB for a lower price and keep the 256GB version at the same a 128GB would normally cost. RAM is getting cheaper every year 😉. Everybody happy!
