Early iOS 18 Code Reveals Four New iPhone Models With A18 Chip

[Abazigal]

(There are social factors to this. For example, I imagine minis are only interesting to men, because women wouldn't have sufficient pants/dress pockets regardless. They use a purse either way. So that advantage of the mini already goes away for ~half the population.

I might still have been interested in a smaller iPhone to bring on runs with me once upon a time (eg: back when I was using runkeeper to map my runs), but an Apple Watch pretty much covers that for me now.

I really do like the size and the weight of the 13 mini, but ultimately, the batter life and the screen size of the 13 pro max won out, though I still prefer the 8+ form factor best. It's just comforting knowing that your phone has ample juice to make it through a full day no matter what you throw at it. I have even stopped bringing power banks out with me these days.

 

[rp2011]

I thought that having a lesser chip for the base new iPhone was a bad idea that marginalized the entire iPhone brand. Previously EVERYONE buying a new iPhone no matter which one knew it was the latest and greatest minus a few quality-of-life improvements for the Pros. Keeping the same chip throughout with the same basic capabilities per generation lifts the entire brand and appeal of the "new iPhone".

 

[Torty]

So one year less of iOS support for A17?

 

[chucker23n1]

I thought that having a lesser chip for the base new iPhone was a bad idea that marginalized the entire iPhone brand. Previously EVERYONE buying a new iPhone no matter which one knew it was the latest and greatest minus a few quality-of-life improvements for the Pros. Keeping the same chip throughout with the same basic capabilities per generation lifts the entire brand and appeal of the "new iPhone".

We don't know to what extent it was a marketing decision vs. a necessity due to production volume. The bulk of iPhone sales is non-Pro. It may simply have been impossible for TSMC to manufacturer 200M A17 chips in the coming 12 months.

 

[IRLNatalieAnne]

I’d really rather have an iPhone 16 minus. Smaller – ‘mini,’ if you will, and less camera nonsense.

Oh so an iPhone SE?

 

[Avenged110]

Oh so an iPhone SE?

Not necessarily. I'm referring more to a fully-featured iPhone 16 shrunk to the size of the so-called 'mini' models. I do prefer the camera system of the current SE, though, for its relatively small size that frees more space for battery.

 

[prime17569]

Does it mean 10GB of RAM for the 16 pros and 8GB for the base models? If true this is great news for normal users.

or maybe the 10GB is for the rumored Ultra?

I'm not aware of there being any DRAM chips available in 5GB or 10GB capacities. My bet is that it will be either two 6GB chips or one 12GB chip, like those used on the 18GB M3 Pro (3x6GB) or 48GB M3 Max (3x12GB), so even a model occupying all 10GB would leave 2GB for the rest of the system.

The base model MacBook Air models may also come standard with 12 GB (2x6GB), with a 24 GB (2x12GB) tier as an upgrade.

 

[xpxp2002]

I am guessing it's a combination of the plus iPhone still selling better than the mini iPhone, as well as the former having a higher profit margin (Apple is able to charge a higher price by virtue of it having a larger display).

Supposedly the 14 Plus sold worse than the 13 mini. Haven’t heard anything about how the 15 models are faring so far this year.

I do believe the margins are a big part of the real reason why. The mini served its purpose for Apple: to effectively raise the price of the base model iPhone $100 while being able to advertise that the lowest price iPhone 12 (the 12 mini, at the time) was the same price as the previous year’s base model iPhone 11.

It’s just a shame that if another phone maker sold as many phones as Apple did of the iPhone mini, they would have deemed it an unqualified success. Even despite the undeniably large market for behemoth phones (that I’ll never understand), there are clearly millions of people who like the mini’s size and accept the compromises that come with that.

While it’s understandable why Apple chose to replace the 13 mini with the 14 Plus in 2021 based on the 12 mini’s sales and projected/anticipated Plus sales; it’s not clear why they would continue to make a 16 Plus next year if it’s performing even more poorly than the mini did. They should just replace it with a higher-priced mini. Ideally, the “Pro mini” with a ProMotion display and a telephoto lens instead of the useless ultrawide that many of us actually wanted when the 12 mini and 13 mini came out.

 

[Abazigal]

Supposedly the 14 Plus sold worse than the 13 mini. Haven’t heard anything about how the 15 models are faring so far this year.

I only have anecdotal data from the developer of Apollo to go by. He did note that for one of his apps, pixel pals, quite a number of users had the 14 plus, while for his Apollo app, he saw more mini phone users.

So what we can conclude is that the iPhone mini is over-represented amongst the more tech savvy user base (eg: here at Macrumours) while the plus iPhone is more popular amongst the general user populace.

But in terms of absolute number of sales, your guess is as good as mine.

 

[smulji]

I'm not aware of there being any DRAM chips available in 5GB or 10GB capacities. My bet is that it will be either two 6GB chips or one 12GB chip, like those used on the 18GB M3 Pro (3x6GB) or 48GB M3 Max (3x12GB), so even a model occupying all 10GB would leave 2GB for the rest of the system.

The base model MacBook Air models may also come standard with 12 GB (2x6GB), with a 24 GB (2x12GB) tier as an upgrade.

Would love to see that happen beginning with the M4 version of the MBA.

 

[werealldumdums]

I regret what I said and don’t know how to delete comments lol

 

[Abazigal]

I regret what I said and don’t know how to delete comments lol

Either leave it or try contacting a mod over this.

 

[Aoligei]

Supposedly the 14 Plus sold worse than the 13 mini. Haven’t heard anything about how the 15 models are faring so far this year.

I do believe the margins are a big part of the real reason why. The mini served its purpose for Apple: to effectively raise the price of the base model iPhone $100 while being able to advertise that the lowest price iPhone 12 (the 12 mini, at the time) was the same price as the previous year’s base model iPhone 11.

It’s just a shame that if another phone maker sold as many phones as Apple did of the iPhone mini, they would have deemed it an unqualified success. Even despite the undeniably large market for behemoth phones (that I’ll never understand), there are clearly millions of people who like the mini’s size and accept the compromises that come with that.

While it’s understandable why Apple chose to replace the 13 mini with the 14 Plus in 2021 based on the 12 mini’s sales and projected/anticipated Plus sales; it’s not clear why they would continue to make a 16 Plus next year if it’s performing even more poorly than the mini did. They should just replace it with a higher-priced mini. Ideally, the “Pro mini” with a ProMotion display and a telephoto lens instead of the useless ultrawide that many of us actually wanted when the 12 mini and 13 mini came out.

Pro Mini will never make sense. The problem would be price. If there is only $100 dollars difference between Pro mini and regular Pro, there is no incentive for majority of people purchase Pro Mini. This is exactly same problem with regular mini, it is price too high.

I don’t think Apple will sell Pro mini in bargain price and if it is priced too high, then it will not sell.

There are only handful of people who prefer Pro mini… while majority of people aren’t.

 

[Zorori]

Supposedly the 14 Plus sold worse than the 13 mini. Haven’t heard anything about how the 15 models are faring so far this year.

Funny how this site was so quick to post any bad news about mini sales… but seemingly don’t care about sales of the Plus