Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Why is iPhone base model still 16 GB?

to keep it cheap although i think we all know it doent cost apple $100 to double the capacity to 32GB. Honestly I think 16GB is perfect-I always get the 16GB, my ipad mini and iphone 5c are both 16GB and they are perfect size in capacity.

----------

Just be glad apple isnt that cheap that they would make the base model 8GB :)
 
T5BRICK said:
I think the 16GB model is fairly popular, so if people keep buying it, they'll keep building it. I do wish they'd bump the base storage up to 32GB on all devices, but I need more than that anyway, so I end up buying the 64GB model.

On the other hand, the 32GB Nexus 5 is only $50 more than the 16GB model, as opposed to Apples $100 charge for the same bump in capacity. Maybe Apple is just being greedy.
Click to expand...
The only reason people buy the 16gb model is because its the cheapest
 
Shanghaichica said:
My S4 only came with 16GB and only 9 GB was available to the user. I had an SD card in there but it didn't really solve the problem. Some apps couldn't be saved to the SD card and even those that could part of the app remains on the phone. I couldn't store any movies or TV shows purchased from the play store on it. I also couldn't store podcasts, or many games on there. It became frustrating because I always had to delete things and clear out the cache as it kept saying it had low memory. The same thing happened on my original galaxy note which also had 16 GB of internal memory and a 32 GB SD card inside. SD cards are great but they didn't really solve my memory issues. Also maybe I've had bad luck but I've had a few fail on me.
Click to expand...

This is interesting information. One of the big selling points with Android is that most are expandable with an SD card. I'm not an Android user, so I wasn't sure what you could and could not store on an SD card.
 
chrf097 said:
You say all this as if it's only Apple who does this. For example, The Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One all cost around $230 to make, yet they sell for $700 as well. This is nothing new, but if you were to understand how business and economics and manufacturing worked, the price of a manufactured good is ALWAYS higher because of loads of other factors that come into play.
Click to expand...

See my earlier comment. Of course I understand there is more costs involved than manufacturing (or you take me for an idiot?), but since Apple is making record profits in the industry... isn't it evident that we are paying well over what Apple needs to cover R&D and other related costs?

I don't want to talk about other companies here, but as we all know, the copycat Samsung just follows their role model Apple when it comes to pricing as well. They do the same $100 upcharge for more memory. Not surprisingly, they make record profits as well on their mobile division.
 
8GB is enough for most people who just want to text, call and have a couple of social apps. 16GB is fine for the base model, albeit pricey. But anything Apple is pricey.
 
cyks said:
Except the cloud model doesn't work too well when apps are over 1GB and it's difficult (or overly expensive) to have unlimited data over cellular.
Click to expand...

That's the point. "Cloud" requires you to pay the phone maker, the cloud service provider and the wireless carrier. All in all, it's a win for the entire industry ecosystem.
 
iPodJedi said:
to keep it cheap although i think we all know it doent cost apple $100 to double the capacity to 32GB. Honestly I think 16GB is perfect-I always get the 16GB, my ipad mini and iphone 5c are both 16GB and they are perfect size in capacity.

----------

Just be glad apple isnt that cheap that they would make the base model 8GB :)
Click to expand...


Current base model is the 4S and it's 8 gb. :confused:
 
INSANE PROFITS

Going from 16GB --> 32GB costs you $100 and Apple probably $5

--> 2000% profit margin on that storage upgrade. Great for Apple.

But yeah, totally screwing the consumer.
 
Mackan said:
See my earlier comment. Of course I understand there is more costs involved than manufacturing (or you take me for an idiot?), but since Apple is making record profits in the industry... isn't it evident that we are paying well over what Apple needs to cover R&D and other related costs?



I don't want to talk about other companies here, but as we all know, the copycat Samsung just follows their role model Apple when it comes to pricing as well. They do the same $100 upcharge for more memory. Not surprisingly, they make record profits as well on their mobile division.
Click to expand...


"Copy cat" Samsung S4 is $50 dollars more for the 32gb model. The prices vary but when I find more then 50 it's because the 16gb is just that much cheaper.

Maybe when you say you shouldn't talk about something you shouldn't. :)
 
cynics said:
"Copy cat" Samsung S4 is $50 dollars more for the 32gb model. The prices vary but when I find more then 50 it's because the 16gb is just that much cheaper.

Maybe when you say you shouldn't talk about something you shouldn't. :)
Click to expand...

Here in Europe the difference is about 80-90$ .... a little less than iPhone, but not so different
 
16GB of space is fine for me, I only keep playlists of songs that I really like now so I have a ton of space left over. However, I can't wait to see what Apple does if the Canadian dollar keeps dipping, what will it be iPhone 6 16GB for $299 in Canada? It's already at $229 here for the 5s so who knows.
 
I had a 32 gig iP4 and had over 20 gig free

My 5s is a 16gig and have 6 free

I have plenty of music and I only have work related apps like database, remote desktop & GPS tools
My phone is a tool bag with a great phone

I speculate the folks that need more than 16gigs use their phone as a toy....
 
Last edited:
libertysat said:
I had a 32 gig iP4 and had over 20 gig free



My 5s is a 16gig and have 12 free



I have plenty of music and I only have work related apps like database, remote desktop & GPS tools

My phone is a tool bag with a great phone



I speculate the folks that need more than 16gigs use their phone as a toy....
Click to expand...


By toy do you mean having more music then you do? What's the limit of music before an iPhone goes from a tool to toy?
 
osx11 said:
INSANE PROFITS

Going from 16GB --> 32GB costs you $100 and Apple probably $5

--> 2000% profit margin on that storage upgrade. Great for Apple.

But yeah, totally screwing the consumer.
Click to expand...

Well it cant be like $210 it would be weird and people would refuse to buy it:D
 
libertysat said:
I had a 32 gig iP4 and had over 20 gig free

My 5s is a 16gig and have 12 free

I have plenty of music and I only have work related apps like database, remote desktop & GPS tools
My phone is a tool bag with a great phone

I speculate the folks that need more than 16gigs use their phone as a toy....
Click to expand...

i actually thought the other way around that you would be better off with a dumbphone.

16GB which equals to 13 GB you can actually use and you STILL got 12 GB left so you only use about 1GB? i call bollocks on that one
 
With the pricing structure a 32 gb is a rip off. 16 extra for 100 dollars. With the 64 gb you get 48 gb for 200 more. That's 3x the memory extra.

So people with 32 gb shouldn't say anything to people that say they only need 16 or because it's the cheapest. Unless they admit they only needed 32 gb or didn't want to spend the money on 64 gb.

That said my next iPhone will be 32 gb because that's all I need and I don't want to spend another 100. :D
 
bushido said:
i actually thought the other way around that you would be better off with a dumbphone.

16GB which equals to 13 GB you can actually use and you STILL got 12 GB left so you only use about 1GB? i call bollocks on that one
Click to expand...

You are right, typo
6 free
 
The Doctor11 said:
Well it cant be like $210 it would be weird and people would refuse to buy it:D
Click to expand...

Well why can't it be?

Prices have come down SO MUCH that this simply makes no sense. Flash storage is so cheap that this makes no sense.

Bare minimum:

32 GB standard
$50 upgrade to 64
another $100 to 128GB

Would be fair and reasonable I think.
 
cynics said:
128 gb iPads have been out for quite a while now. iPad 4 was the first...

----------




I don't know if I'd call the Nexus 5 a top level phone at 1/2 the price of the iPhone. And if you want the 32gb model it's 50 dollars vs Apples 100 dollars.
Click to expand...

I don't feel resale price determines whether a phone is "top level" or not. It's the hardware (and OS to an extent) and the hardware in the nexus 5 is amazing, comparable to the so called top level phones
 
I'm fine with 16GB. I don't need much in the way of local storage.

As wireless broadband coverage increases and becomes less expensive, I think that device storage will matter less.
 
For my needs, 16GB is more than enough. Even now, I still have about 5GBs free, since I have most of my files on the desktop or iMac.

Even for the next one, I'd be fine with 16GBs, since I don't store lots of stuff on my phone.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back