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Is 128GB Enough iPhone Storage?

ric22 said:
Which component costs breakdown are you looking at, out of curiosity? The one from the Japanese newspaper? They're all guesswork to some extent, but it's interesting to see that some think that 256GB costs less than 128GB cost last year. There's a suggestion that the price difference between the two sizes right now is under 50 cents. That's hilarious if true. Selling consumers something for nothing is the ultimate trick.
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It was an article quoting Nikkei, but that's paywalled to I can't see the actual report. I think it was comparing the 14 Pro (128 GB) to 15 pro (256 GB), so it's more in line with what you're reading with 256GB this year costing roughly the same as 128 GB last year.

Perhaps 128GB saw a similar drop this year, so what I said above may not strictly be true in a 2024 to 2024 price comparison, but based on what I've seen from experience is that once you go small enough all the prices lump closely together anyway.
 
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paradox00 said:
You're just flat out wrong on this point. Apple limiting base storage to 128GB isn't benefiting you whatsoever. You're not getting a cheaper phone as a result. The component cost difference between 256GB and 128GB is 5% (as per iPhone 15 pro breakdown), doesn't cost more to integrate on the SOC and contributes much less than that to the total cost of the phone. The impact on Phone pricing is precisely zero, because Apple targets specific price points (i.e. $799) and the increased cost isn't enough to bump it up to the next price point ($899).

The 5% component cost savings matters to Apple because they can multiply it by 100s of millions of iPhones. When you multiply it by the 1 phone that a customer purchases it doesn't matter at all. You're not saving money, you're just losing future expandability and resale value.
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The 5% component cost savings matters to Apple because those people that want/need 256 storage, pay an extra $100 for it. If they just made the base storage 256, they’d lose out on hundreds of millions (or possibly billions) of dollars in lost profit. This is simple economics; if they raise the base storage they’re going to raise the price of the phone to offset that loss.
 
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paradox00 said:
You're just flat out wrong on this point. Apple limiting base storage to 128GB isn't benefiting you whatsoever. You're not getting a cheaper phone as a result. The component cost difference between 256GB and 128GB is 5% (as per iPhone 15 pro breakdown), doesn't cost more to integrate on the SOC and contributes much less than that to the total cost of the phone. The impact on Phone pricing is precisely zero, because Apple targets specific price points (i.e. $799) and the increased cost isn't enough to bump it up to the next price point ($899).

The 5% component cost savings matters to Apple because they can multiply it by 100s of millions of iPhones. When you multiply it by the 1 phone that a customer purchases it doesn't matter at all. You're not saving money, you're just losing future expandability and resale value.
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Regardless of what, how, why Apple does what it does (although it usually is being difficult on purpose, often is obtuse, pretentious, customer host…unfriendly, anti competitive and extremely good at calculating maximum ROI…AND I completely believe what you are saying is exactly the reason they are keeping the 128GB on the PRO, which actually is ridiculous from a user standpoint as it’s a) supposed to be a pro device, can do shoot ProRes but not fully on the 128 b) AI will probably take a chunk when it’s available c) 128 isn’t that much today, not really, even if you can use it and not even get close to the storage limit, but then a pro device isn’t for you, not really d) higher cost per gigabyte….

Pro 15
128 - 7.8$ per gigabyte
256 - 4.29$ per gigabyte
512 - 2.53$ per gigabyte

Even if you pay a lot lot more for 2x the storage, the total storage cost goes down almost half. So bump up to 256 isn’t that bad a “deal”…

The device cost is the same for all three sizes, but the cost is actually smaller for the customer.
 
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FreakinEurekan said:
The 5% component cost savings matters to Apple because those people that want/need 256 storage, pay an extra $100 for it. If they just made the base storage 256, they’d lose out on hundreds of millions (or possibly billions) of dollars in lost profit. This is simple economics; if they raise the base storage they’re going to raise the price of the phone to offset that loss.
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You're still missing the point... the specs are poor enough they're at the point where they're going to start losing money if they don't increase the specs. The "simple economics" comment is ill informed and just plain wrong. It's complex, unquestionably. If it was as simple as you claim, why do other manufacturers improve specs without always rising prices? Why do Apple improve processors without always raising prices?
 
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SebCohen said:
That means they are a good company….BECAUSE they can’t do that if they don’t innovate.
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Annoying customers by saving a dollar and thereby twisting their arm into paying for a subscription that isn't otherwise essential isn't going to go down as great innovation. Maybe we should save these posts for posterity and look back at them in 5 years, to see if Apple's nefarious plan goes down as a short lived bit of contemptible anti-consumer stupidity (my opinion), or a clever piece of innovation that makes them a "good company" (your opinion). 🙂
 
Might be a controversial idea but how about Apple building a 256GB chip in each phone. By default 128GB can be used for photos, video, music, etc. The operating system lives on the other 128GB but additional storage can be "unlocked" by paying for it later, one time or as a subscription. Other companies, such as Tesla, do it for special features and even performance upgrades and nobody gets upset about it.
 
ric22 said:
Annoying customers by saving a dollar and thereby twisting their arm into paying for a subscription that isn't otherwise essential isn't going to go down as great innovation. Maybe we should save these posts for posterity and look back at them in 5 years, to see if Apple's nefarious plan goes down as a short lived bit of contemptible anti-consumer stupidity (my opinion), or a clever piece of innovation that makes them a "good company" (your opinion). 🙂
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Well, that’s my point. If they charge too much or innovate too little, people won’t pay for it so they will have to adjust. If they charge too much, innovate too little and we still buy it, then it’s our own faults.
 
rocketbuc said:
Might be a controversial idea but how about Apple building a 256GB chip in each phone. By default 128GB can be used for photos, video, music, etc. The operating system lives on the other 128GB but additional storage can be "unlocked" by paying for it later, one time or as a subscription. Other companies, such as Tesla, do it for special features and even performance upgrades and nobody gets upset about it.
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I’d buy this. Except like some others have stated here, economies of scale makes that a bad deal for Apple. It’s millions, perhaps billions is lost sales and/or more per unit cost. They could spread it out evenly, but then a lot would be paying for something others get the benefit of…and boy oh boy, there would be drama.
 
I HAD just ordered the 15 Pro 256GB. Finding it a good compromise and trying to save some money. But I never opened the box…it’s now going back to the store and I put in another order of one with 512GB. I did some checking and found out I’m going to end up annoyed at the limitations and saving “soo little” on the total cost.

So what size is right? Finding the “right size” is all about your use case.


I went back and checked how much I’ve used the past 5 years.

Per year I’m 70-100GB in just 4K video. (Yes, I should probably cull a bit)
Per year I’m 70-110GB in photos.

An average

Images :
Per month 7.2GB / Per Year 86GB

Video (4K) : (varies much more, some almost 0, others a lot)
Per month 9.1GB / Per Year 110GB

That’s on average 196GB in camera use. Off course 256GB would be too little for me.

15GB - IOS
30GB - Spotify
10GB - Podcasts
35GB - Apps
20GB - WhatsApp
Total
110GB use on a day-to-day basis

Within a year I’d use up to/around
196GB - Camera

New total for 1 year
306GB

What I also want to use the phone as is as storage for my GoPro when travelling. So even if I got better at managing my camera use, 256GB would still not be enough. On a 4 week holiday/trek I used up 120GB just that trip.

So, 512GB it is.

So I guess it’s all about being honest with yourself a) what is your average use per month/year b) what do you want to do with your phone c) what can you afford vs what would annoy you more, less money or running out of space.

Edit: I have the iPad Pro 12.9 512GB, ut I’ve fou7out that since I’m more often than not close to home WiFi with it, I don’t need that storage there. So for me, what I’ve discovered is to have most storage on phone vs iPad.
 
SebCohen said:
Well, that’s my point. If they charge too much or innovate too little, people won’t pay for it so they will have to adjust. If they charge too much, innovate too little and we still buy it, then it’s our own faults.
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That makes sense. I agree. 👍🏼 Your last post seemed to be suggesting something a little different.
 
ric22 said:
That makes sense. I agree. 👍🏼 Your last post seemed to be suggesting something a little different.
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And I’m NOT saying Apple aren’t sneaky MF who doesn’t charge “too much” (comparatively) already and do their utmost and beyond to lock in users and implement hostile tactics to do so…because they do all that expertly. But they are also quite good at making things work very very well. But they are no longer better by a mile…
 
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