The MacRumors Show: Is Apple Downgrading iPhone 18 Due to Memory Shortage?

[FranciscoMaass]

I think the idea of a “downgrade” or “upgrade” is very personal. Take the iPhone 17 Pro: it was thicker, and for some, that’s a design downgrade. But at the same time, the battery improved, which for others is an upgrade in functionality. The question is: what do you value more? If someone uses their phone at home and doesn’t need extreme brightness, that change might be indifferent—as long as the price stays put.

In short, a change that’s a downgrade to some can be an upgrade to others. I think it’s worth being more flexible in how we define that—especially if the end result fits our needs.

 

[StevesBobs]

I think the idea of a “downgrade” or “upgrade” is very personal. Take the iPhone 17 Pro: it was thicker, and for some, that’s a design downgrade. But at the same time, the battery improved, which for others is an upgrade in functionality. The question is: what do you value more? If someone uses their phone at home and doesn’t need extreme brightness, that change might be indifferent—as long as the price stays put.

In short, a change that’s a downgrade to some can be an upgrade to others. I think it’s worth being more flexible in how we define that—especially if the end result fits our needs.

Ahh yes, "less ram is actually good". Didn't take long.

I get it, everything has pros and cons but there are very little pros to less ram. More ram might use a tiny bit more power, but probably far less than it takes to relaunch and reprocess the applications that had to close because memory was needed.

 

[FranciscoMaass]

Ahh yes, "less ram is actually good". Didn't take long.

I get it, everything has pros and cons but there are very little pros to less ram. More ram might use a tiny bit more power, but probabl far less than it takes to relaunch and reprocess the applications that had to close because memory was needed.

I actually agree with you that RAM is probably not the best component to sacrifice, at least not from my perspective. My original point was more about how “upgrade” and “downgrade” depend a lot on the user and the trade-offs involved.

To me, this feels similar to how Apple has experimented with product segmentation in the past, where certain models mainly differed in things like size, battery life, or just a handful of features depending on the audience they were targeting.

That’s why I can understand the possibility of Apple narrowing the gap between the regular iPhone and the “e” models. Apple has access to usage data we simply don’t have, and if they make decisions like this, it’s probably because their numbers suggest most buyers of those models aren’t fully utilizing the current hardware anyway.

That doesn’t mean everyone has to like it — especially power users — and honestly I’d personally be much more concerned about RAM reductions than something like a slightly dimmer display. But from a product and market segmentation standpoint, I can at least understand the reasoning behind it, especially considering how the market is behaving right now.

 

[Terry2023]

It seems to me if I ran a company that HAD to have truly VAST amounts of RAM, and that company had VAST amounts of MONEY the logical solution would be to buy a company that makes RAM. Or at the very least build my own Fab - those only cost a few tens of billions. That really isn’t very much by Apple standards.

 

[Nibo10]

Still undecided air or regular 17

The Air is a dream. 7 months in and still can’t get over how it feels when holding it and using it.

 

[Alex72]

True. But a.i. is just gonna keep demanding more and more ram to the point where Apple & other tech companies will need to do SOMETHING. Like maybe starting their own ram manufacturing company. What good are having Trillions of dollars if you’re not gonna put it to good use. And it seems that this a.i. ram situation is just going to keep getting worse. Eventually Apple will have to take action.

I wonder if the real hope should be A.I. becoming sophisticated enough that it can be used to streamline new and legacy code, so that global RAM needs finally plateau, or even go down for a good long spell……?

 

[gummybear2026]

The Air is a dream. 7 months in and still can’t get over how it feels when holding it and using it.

It's still a dream you will have to hold onto since the device will disappear after the Air 2 flops!

 

[Elwe]

Looking at the component price increases (those that have happened, and those that have yet to happen)--I just don't see how we can avoid recession and stagflation. The 70s in the US was not generally a great time for the majority of people.

 

[klasma]

It seems to me if I ran a company that HAD to have truly VAST amounts of RAM, and that company had VAST amounts of MONEY the logical solution would be to buy a company that makes RAM.

That wouldn’t change the amount of RAM that company can make, nor its existing contractual obligations.

Or at the very least build my own Fab - those only cost a few tens of billions.

Building a fab and taking it to production takes 2-3 years if you already have the experience and existing infrastructure. And Apple would have to find enough people they can hire that actually have that expertise. Chip manufacturing is among the most complex processes that exist in this world, more complex than most if not all of what Apple is presently doing on their own.

 

[klasma]

True. But a.i. is just gonna keep demanding more and more ram to the point where Apple & other tech companies will need to do SOMETHING. Like maybe starting their own ram manufacturing company. What good are having Trillions of dollars if you’re not gonna put it to good use.

Apple doesn’t have trillions of dollar. The trillions of valuation is merely the nominal value of the shares owned by the shareholders.

And what good is it if Apple has to double iPhone prices to recoup such an investment?

Lastly, if Apple would start manufacturing RAM and could make substantially more money by selling that RAM to AI companies than by putting it into iPhones, why wouldn’t they just do that? The shareholders would demand it.

The bottom line is, market prices will be market prices, Apple can’t just simply escape that.

 

[Greenmeenie]

True. But a.i. demand for ram is just going to keep increasing exponentially. It isn't going to stop. The a.i. data centers demand for ram is going to double, then triple, then quadruple on & on.