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Latest iPhone Chips to Remain Exclusive to Pro Models for iPhone 15 and Beyond

Where the iPhone used to be the base and the Pro a luxury version, it's now pretty clear that apple is marketing the Pro as the standard model and the non pro as a nerfed version...
At this point it would be more honest for them to call it "iPhone C" like they did with the cheap pre-SE models.
 
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v0lume4 said:
Pigs get fed, hogs get killed.

There will come a point where the market will no longer continue eating up Apples nickel and diming. It’s coming.
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I don't know about that.

People put up with Apple's price and other shenanigans because of the software and its integration between Apple's products.

I mean, it took them 4 YEARS to fix those awful keyboards, and people not only put up with them but some even DEFENDED that trash.

As strictly a consumer (I get a PC issued from work), I have never needed Apple products.

I've always wanted them. At (almost) any price.
 
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fuchsdh said:
If they hadn't realized that before, they were just people who liked burning money on the shiny new gadget.

People haven't "needed" to upgrade their phone every year or every other year in a decade at least, and the people freaking out about the iPhone 14 "not being a good deal" for them are missing the fact that tons of people will be buying coming from an 11 or earlier; I'm upgrading from an XS (I'll probably get a 13 mini for the form factor, which if the chip isn't changing in the 14 feels like an even better decision.) I know people out there still rocking iPhone 6, 6s and 7's, because even with a lack of updates they're still solid phones that do basic stuff fine.

In other words: people should step outside themselves for a second and realize they are not the only consumers out there every so often.
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This is exactly what I wanted to say! Not everyone I know upgrades their phones every year. Now I do upgrade every year but only because I'm on the upgrade program which is affordable with Apple Care and I like using the size and cameras the Pro Max's have offered to the fullest, almost every other day to shoot photos and videos as a hobbyist.

This decision makes perfect sense in aiming to differentiate the Pro line from the standard iPhones. Because currently, camera and size is basically the only differentiator. As the newer A-series chips are a lot faster and efficient from the competition, I don't see it being a problem. Not to mention that 5-6 years of iOS updates is plenty for most people who will start seeing their battery age and upgrade by that time anyway.

Android manufacturers have also differentiated their phones with different chips in different lines of products.

It would be easier for them to just choose different names to please people. For example, have the Pro series chips be called A16X or A16 and A16 Pro where this years' standard iPhone's would receive last year's Pro (non-binned) models instead. I am curious about what chips the SE will get into future though. Possibly the same as the standard iPhone from that year?
 
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Can you imagine if Samsung did this? There would be no end of ridicule here on the forum. Apple does it and everyone starts accepting and justify it.

They removed the headphone jack simply to sell you AirPods, they keep one set of phones on LCD after launching OLED just to boost sales of the expensive models. Now they have turned the entire lineup into Windows Vista editions with artificial limitations.

I am glad I don’t rush out and buy everything they release under the sun. I know they hate users like me and Chris Evans who hold on to their phone for as long as possible. But guess what, this iPhone X is gonna squeeze every last dollar of that 1,299 I spent on it.
 
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Rogifan said:
Apple really only has itself to blame for why the 5c flopped. They went out of their way to basically say this is just an iPhone 5 which allowed the tech press to spin it as an overpriced year old phone.
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But it was a colorful, less expensive iPhone 5. If Apple had tried to be deceptive about that, people would have complained. So what should Apple have done?

But my comment is about rumors in general. Pricing and feature list of the regular 14 aren't even out and people are acting like apple exhumed and defiled their dead mother. Very few people seem to enjoy conversations about rumors, it's all about how every rumor means the worst thing possible.
 
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antiprotest said:
They can further differentiate by giving the storage tiers different speeds, going all the way with what they do with MacBooks. 1/5 speed for 64GB, 2/5 speed for 128GB, 3/5 speed for 256GB, 4/5 speed for 512GB, and 5/5 or normal speed for 1TB. Each step up from 64GB would add at least $100.
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That's most likely not on purpose but an inherent property of SSDs - bigger SSDs with more chips are faster.
 
fuchsdh said:
If they hadn't realized that before, they were just people who liked burning money on the shiny new gadget.

People haven't "needed" to upgrade their phone every year or every other year in a decade at least, and the people freaking out about the iPhone 14 "not being a good deal" for them are missing the fact that tons of people will be buying coming from an 11 or earlier; I'm upgrading from an XS (I'll probably get a 13 mini for the form factor, which if the chip isn't changing in the 14 feels like an even better decision.) I know people out there still rocking iPhone 6, 6s and 7's, because even with a lack of updates they're still solid phones that do basic stuff fine.

In other words: people should step outside themselves for a second and realize they are not the only consumers out there every so often.
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Yeah I still see lots of iPhone 6’s around and 7’s and 8’s. lots of people don’t care if they get more software updates and will only start caring once some of their apps stop working. That’s usually a few years after iOS updates stop.
 
thadoggfather said:
They chalk it up to people dont want mini phones. I think that is a trend people largely prefer larger phones but the larger problem in my view there was price not the product.
$100 less than the most popular model, for what is perceived as a lot less (screen real estate).

If it was SE level in price, it would sell like hot cakes.
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I dunno, they sell the 12 mini at $599 now and it’s still not selling the best, I don’t think $100 less will change that. Maybe though, who knows.
 
Rogifan said:
The problem Apple has is it doesn’t really have anything to justify the ‘pro’ models. Slightly better camera is about it. I‘m not sure many care about stainless steel vs aluminum.
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Clearly they do though because people are buying them. ProMotion display is a big feature for some people, myself included.
 
The Pro phones already had better performance than non Pro phones in the last two generations:
  • iPhone 12 had 4GB of RAM vs 6GB of RAM in the iPhone 12 Pro
  • iPhone 13 had 4GB of RAM and 4-core GPU vs 6GB of RAM and 5-core GPU in the iPhone 13 Pro
What is going to change, fundamentally, is that you will get a more efficient SOC in the Pro models along with the speed improvements.

This means the Pro phones will probably have better battery life than non Pro phones of the same generation.

In the iPhone 14 Pro Apple is likely to use the extra battery life budget to power the always-on display.
 
ian87w said:
The comment I replied to said that his iPhone X is still capable.
My point was, Apple doesn't care if the hardware is still capable or not. They just go by time (which they do not disclose) to just stop OS support whenever. Look at Macs. Plenty of older higher config macs are more capable than newer lesser config macs, but they got dropped off OS support simply because of their age. The same with iPhone 6s and 7, dropping both A9 and A10 form iOS16 just because.

So whatever A chip Apple made, it won't matter in 5 years or so as Apple will simply drop support regardless if the hardware is still capable or not.

Now, going back to your post, basically from now on, we can expect 1 less year of support for non Pro models since they are 1 generation behind.
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You keep saying that they drop support "just because". These simpleton, reactionary comments on here are endlessly funny to me. Your "savvy" understanding of Apples processes and decision-making is nothing more than performative contrarianism. You have no idea how any of this works, but you take joy in feeling aggrieved that a phone released six years ago won't get any more major software updates.

Apple isn't a charity, so there is some business considerations to all these decisions, but claiming that there is no technical reasons for these decisions is baseless.
 
This makes some sense, as when upgrading last year to the iPhone 13, I didn’t feel personally, that there was sufficient difference between a 13 and a 13 Pro to justify the extra money. I just opted more storage instead.

Would a faster processor sway me to upgrade next time? Not sure. It’s not like the gains are really noticeable in everyday use anymore.
 
As it should be.... if you want the fully loaded GT over the lower modeled LX then you have to pay for it.... expecting the same specs in the lower-end model as the top-of-the-line model is ridiculous and is exclusive to these forums.
 
Apple: Go Pro or Go home. We don't have time for non Pros.
 
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thadoggfather said:
Could be battery life.
Could just be incremental but progress is still progress.

We would all laugh at Android if they dropped in the same SoC year over year for the same product's next generation.

If they're going to just re-package what we've had for a year, there should at least be a price reduction.

The 5c flopped because it was a repackaged 5 and the 5s existed.
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I wouldn't laugh at Android at all if the same SoC provided the same exact user experience that an upgraded SoC would provide, especially if it meant a less expensive phone. Personally I'd MUCH rather see benefits to other areas that I've always puzzled over, like apps that refresh and lose information when backgrounded, email that isn't updated in the background, consistent badge updates, significant battery life, etc.

But that's why I was asking, maybe the new chip has some of these benefits so I'll reserve judgement (and my dollars) until we get more info.
 
Makes sense, it’s gotten harder and harder to recommend the pro models within the past several years.
The 12 Pro over the 12 was especially difficult to recommend.
An extra $200 or so and you got… uh… a third camera, an AR sensor that no one uses, and a frosted glass back.
Processor was the same, the screen was the same, the battery was the same, refresh rate was the same, speakers were the same, charging method was the same, regular cameras were the same… It literally was such a small difference.
Makes sense that they’re trying to make the difference a lot more impressive, especially if the 14 Pro will be going up in price
 
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