The Korea Times today reports that Apple is in negotiations with Samsung to have the company supply the flash memory for the next-gen iPhone models. Currently, the flash storage is provided by Toshiba, SK hynix and SanDisk. The report also notes that Apple is looking to increase the storage capacity of its iPhone models.
Apple currently offers the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB variants. Today’s report suggests that Apple, rather than working to go beyond the 128GB amount, will increase the storage of the mid-tier models. The most logical move would be to cut the 16GB variant and make a 32GB model the entry-level option. The report, however, doesn’t go into that much detail.
Samsung and Apple are in negotiations over pricing and shipments for the flash storage, with Samsung testing its offerings for durability and stability during the process. The main reason Samsung lost Apple’s flash storage business in the past is because of price, the report claims.
Earlier this year it was reported that Samsung has agreed to provide A9 chips for the next-generation iPhone models. Apple has reduced its reliance on Samsung over the past few years amid their legal differences, with TSMC producing the majority of its A-series chips.
Apple has reportedly started early production of the next-generation iPhone 6 and 6 Plus with Force Touch, with the company looking to accelerate production as soon as next month. Today’s report from The Korea Times should be taken with a grain or two of salt, however, seeing that the publication has a history of inaccuracy when it comes to the manufacturing partnership between Apple and Samsung.
Regarding the possibility of Apple ditching the 16GB iPhone model, Apple’s SVP of marketing Phil Schiller explained earlier this month that Apple believes the cloud makes up for the lack of storage on the lower-end iPhone models.
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i wish they’d go back to 2 capacities – 32 and 128gb
I agree with 32 and 128gb but I feel that there is something missing; the gap is just to wide. Does 32, 64 and 128gb make sense? That appears to be the most logical.
There definitely needs to be a 64. 32 is great for most but not enough for some. 128 is overkill for 95% of users
Daitenshe, I think that’s the reason why a 32/128 split makes some sense. Having that difference will up sell people who would have been happy with 64gb to the 128gb.
No. 32 is too small for future proofing at this point, and Apple is future proofing. Look at the fact that iOS 9 can be installed and is designed to work well on an iPhone 4S from 2011. Four years from now, it will be a good thing that the majority of iPhones have 64GB. I do not believe 256GB is necessary for a long long time to come though.
“The most logical move would be to cut the 16GB variant”
iPhone 6s and 6s Plus will be sold in 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB storage sizes.
“I do not believe 256GB is necessary for a long long time to come though.”
Famous last words! ;) Now you’ve let that one slip, Apple will immediately add a dual lens camera system with DSLR style imagery at 13 megapixels, an 8 megapixel front facing camera and 4K video capability which are fantastic quality yet eat your storage :)
128GB for the price of 64GB so. Because 64GB is sufficient for me… I don’t want to pay 100€ more, if I have enough with less capacity.
Just get rid of the 16 Gig model and reduce the 64 Gig model by $100. Let’s have a shit just got real moment. Do it for iPads and iPhones and thin out the whole line of devices too. There’s too many models of everything. Kill non-retina devices across the whole company; shake things up and clean things up.
And make all the iPad’s cellular with just one wireless chipset,
There could be ‘red tape’ type reasons why that’s not a good idea.
It all depends on what Qualcomm releases in their chips, but for the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3, Apple only released one model with cellular. You can look it up here.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201471
I agree. Making the 64GB base price would get a lot of people to upgrade to this S model. Then get everyone again with radical redesign in the 7. They’re definitely thinking higher storage for higher MP cameras they’re adding this year. 4K video will come this year or the next, I’m sure.
Apple please do this! We all know you can afford to do this – make us crazy.
Too bad they’re not talking about a 256GB model. I’d buy it even if it was $100 more than the 128GB model. I could use any space they provide.
That’s just insanely sad. No one in the world needs that much space on mobile devices, they just plain and simply, don’t. I don’t think Apple should go to 256GB for at least 5 years.
If it was the iPad Air or upcoming Pro getting the 256 GB space, then that would be acceptable. iCloud Drive brings somewhat of a file system on iOS making it a reasonable computer replacement for simple users.
Your statement is sadly short sided. People that use their iPhone to take lots of pictures and videos could use more space for sure. Who the fuck are you to say what other people would and “shouldn’t” need. If it wer up to someone like you we’d still be using dial up internet and Power PC processors.
I could have used 512GB 4 years ago. Your arbitrary “5 years” and absolute terms makes it obvious you don’t have a clue WRT storage.
Apple however doesn’t base its storage capacities on what any group of people need. It’s about what they need to provide the level of service they want in their product at a price point they believe they can sell – well.
The next iPhone update later this year will be 16, 64 and 128GB, same as the last.
Nope. If you can provide any possible reason why you’d need that much storage, even for pictures and video, that’s you. 99% of the users wouldn’t need 256GB for absolutely any reason at all. You CANT take that many pictures and video without being able to offload it beforehand, it’s absolutely absurd to even try to say that.
The only morons that need that much storage space are the people that literally store everything they have on their mobile device because they feel the need to do so. For example, they want to store 50GB of music, which is completely insane because no one would ever listen to that much music, and now you can stream every song virtually, as for videos, people want to store numerous movies and TV shows just because they own them and can’t live without the idea that they’re always available to play, even though they’d never play most of them, and could plan ahead and download one beforehand when they wanted to. Apps, again are another thing that idiots store in ridiculous numbers on their device, and never open 95% of the time, especially numerous games. Pictures and video…people store their entire collections even though they’ll likely never view any of them on their device. As far as taking pictures and video? You would have to take an absurd amount in order to fill up 128GB assuming you weren’t a moron that stored in the aforementioned ways. I mean to say that you would take that many without being able to offload them is insane, not to mention if you were taking that many you should have a good DSLR, and not use an iPhone’s camera…
The 512GB comment has to be a joke. iPhones won’t have 512GB, nor do they need that much, for at least 15 years. By then streaming and the cloud will have taken over so much, it’s doubtful it will ever happen.
Your right. I can’t see paying $1,000.00 for a phone? That’s what it would probably come out to. Oh wait i’m sorry 256GB would probably cost $1,199.00
There are valid reasons for 256GB IMO but they’re probably not absolutely ‘necessary’ for another 18 months:
– Incoming camera changes. I mentioned this in jest earlier but it is true. The camera is under constant development so higher megapixel count (front & back), image refocusing, 4K video will add to the overhead.
– iBooks author. Interactive/video books take a lot of space so great for education/business.
– Large app collections with productivity apps such as GarageBand at 1.4GB+ each
– Software evolution. Apple are always working on ‘something’ behind the scenes to push the platform forward. If/when they release compelling new first party apps such as Final Cut X for iPad, it’s game over for local storage. This ‘could’ be helped along by USB-C HD connections on future iPads but built-in would be better for mobility. iCloud helps but mobile data caps kill.
– Large games can be a couple of gigabytes each with downloadable content
– Constant additions to the ecosystem such as Apple Watch companion apps, HomeKit etc could balloon app sizes once again. 4K screens might hit iOS devices too once 4K content is here.
o0smoothies0o You’re wrong for one simple reason. “The only morons that need that much storage space are the people that literally store everything they have on their mobile device because they feel the need to do so.” Ignoring your trolling at calling people morons, I know people who do not even own a computer and use their phone for everything (since it is a mini computer, you know). So that reason alone is valid. Coupled with larger photo sizes, 4K video, and music (even though you seem to think 50gb of music is too much for anyone)… seems like what YOU think should apply to the masses, but you’re dead wrong and it’s been proven.
You must be the reincarnation of TallestSkil. That guy was the worst and insisted on calling people morons and idiots for wanting 128GB and emphatically stated that Apple would never do that and that only morons could ever want that much storage. He disappeared (or finally got banned) shortly after the 128GB announcement so I never got to rub it in his face. I hope you aren’t banned by then.
Yeah you guys have fun with your dreams of 256 or 512GB iPhones, it’s not happening anytime in the near future, mainly because 99.9% of the users don’t need or want it, and because it would make the iPhone over $1000.
I would consider the 256Gb too :)
why not 10TB? http://www.networkcomputing.com/storage/ssd-prices-in-a-free-fall/a/d-id/1320958
On Gruber’s Talk Show with Schiller/follow up to it, didn’t they mention that there was some logistical issue of actually getting a 32GB version – that it wasn’t for sale?
https://overcast.fm/+BtuxlMhD0/36:04 Basically saying, off the record – that there wasn’t a 32GB chip – something meant the 32GB wasn’t available in the quantities they needed to be able to sell a 32GB version.
I know that Apple is trying to keep their cost down and it would be something big if Apple added 8 GB to each storage capacity that was saved to only have the OS and OS updates on it. That would give the 16 GB model, 16 GB of useable space but 24 GB total, and they if they did that with all phones then it would cut back on the misleading part that doesn’t tell you that the OS takes up X.X amount of your storage space and every phone would have the advertised amount of storage.
Not sure if they would/could do that, but i think it would be something smart to do.
You will never find any storage solution that has the “advertised amount of storage” because they all use the drive numbers and don’t account for OS, OS updates, drivers, firmware, etc. Sorry, but Apple doesn’t have any obligation here, since it’s industry standard.
Storage capacity is also base 10 and not base 2, just like hard drives and unlike RAM.
I know, but it would be nice for Apple to stand out with that. They change the industry standard all the time, if they did it with this, it would be a year or two for other/most companies to catch up, yes Samsung would be right there doing it if Apple did it, but for the cheaper end phones it would take a year or two, or maybe more to pick up on it.
@Linkb8 i understand that, but if Apple wanted 24, 72, and 132 GB for storage, Samsung would be able to make it, no problem, no questions asked bc Apple is such a big company.
256gb FTW!
Sad. Totally unnecessary.
Sad? Why would you say that? With people asking for it I would say 256 GB is wanted. You sound like the guys that said 25,000 songs for iTunes Match was plenty.
Stop trolling- if you said unnecessary I would have let it go.
If you have more than 25,000 songs you have a problem. You will never listen to all of those songs in the rest of your entire life. That’s a promise.
If you listened to music just 5 hours a day after 250 days you’d go through 25,000 songs. So Smothies must think you are going to die with in the next year. I don’t understand why anyone cares if apple has a high capacity for their phones for more money. Why does it bother you?
Says who?
256Gb would allow me to load my music collection, saving 10€/month. And a part of my video collection too. In fact, in a few months I would be longing for more…
The current lineup is a selling point for $299 on contract phones. Most people know 16 isn’t enough.
Regarding iPads, get rid of the wifi only models and have only cellular models. Of course at wifi only prices. They’ll sell a gazillion again
Uhh most people get 16GB hence why they’re making it so easy to upgrade to iOS 9. Also, most people use iPads at home I’m sure, and now iPhones have personal hotspot.
And for most people 16gb is enough. What was the issue with what they said? It’s nice that Apple is trying to make bandages for all the 8gb and 16gb users but the best cure is to stop selling such small storage options.
32gb should have been the base model when they upped all the other tiers. It was a pretty big shock that 16gb wasn’t moved to the free tier.
Most people get 16GB solely because it’s the base (lowest priced) option. That’s the same reason corporate phones are usually 16GB.
However, I don’t know anyone on a personal nor corporate level that finds 16GB is enough. With the current OS, it’s simply not enough to apply software updates even with only a modest amount of installed and generated content.
@Bruno Apple is dropping the required storage for updates massively. Or hadn’t you heard? And also giving the option to delete and re download content after the update… It’s not even a problem any longer.
Please tell us what takes up all the space on your device?
I’m still very curious to see what happens to the phone in the 5s’ price tier in the fall.
6s and 6s+ seem like sure things. The 5s internals moving to the colored body also seems to have some evidence. But can they really thin the line that much without introducing something to fill out the price tiers?
Maybe the color line gets 16gb free (instead of the horrendous 8gb) and they introduce (keep around) 32gb at $99. It did seam weird that the 5s was around for $149 when everything else was at $100 increments.
I do think the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus models will default to 32 GB local mass storage and 2 GB RAM as minimum hardware specs for the phone, if this report is true.
They would definitely hold the 16/64/128 tiers this time around. We are still on the edge of 4k content, so Apple are holding off that too. The thing is, if they go 16>32, they’ll lose tons of people who are buying the 64. That’s the real problem here, the profit and margins. With the Internet improvements and everything, I guess it’s okay to get 16 and use the $1/20GB/month cloud. For two years you would spend less ($24 in total vs $100) for storage, yet manage to have decent amount of space. And for those of you/us who need more, well, just pay for 64 and maybe again for 20GB cloud. And we are good to go. P.S. We’ll see iPhone with 256 for sure, probably with the 7s in 2017, one or two years after iPad Pro (then the Air) gets the 256. And next year, 2016, they’ll remove 16 from all devices. Save that comment and check it regularly! :)
We are always reading reports out of Korea claiming that Samsung is about to be supplying memory, CPUs and other parts to future Apple products, but it usually turns out that somebody else supplies Apple instead.
There was a time when Samsung was the de-facto supplier for huge numbers of components for Apple’s products, but Samsung proved to be untrustworthy and lost many of those contracts to companies that have rapidly expanded to fill the void that was left when Samsung destroyed it’s relationship with Apple.
I have no doubt that Apple has asked Samsung “What’s your best price?” for this memory and will have asked other suppliers a similar question too and will make a decision offering the best deal for Apple, but the only thing that makes money for a supplier is a real contract – not rumours of a potential contract.
My feeling is that if Samsung had remained as a trusted supplier to Apple, rather than trying to become a rival to Apple, Samsung would have retained and expanded those contracts, which would have made it more profitable now than it is. With those new rivals being able to offer the quantity and quality required, prices are inevitably lower and profits will be lower too.
I wish they’d simplify the iPhone lineup and just have the 5S, 6 and 6+. Sell the previous year’s model in 32GB and the current models in 64 & 128GB.
I am sure they will drop the 8GB models and just shift everything down, my guess is they will drop the 16GB model for the 6S and do this:
$449 16GB 5S
$549 16GB 6
$599 32GB 6
$649 32GB 6S
$749 128GB 6S
$849 256GB 6S
This still makes the mid tier 6S jump from 32 to 128GB very appealing for most buyers.
4k video is coming to the iPhone, so storage space will be highly valuable. Android devices will have cheap 128GB+ SD cards available so a 64GB base iPhone seems reasonable to silence the value concerns but I doubt Apple want’s to cannibalize their mid tier like that. I bet we see a single universal device SKU (works on all carriers like the A1586 & A1524) with 32GB/64GB/128GB/256GB options, with the addition of Rose Gold makes 16 unique options (4 colors x 4 capacities). A carrier agnostic device would be a very good value proposition as people wise up to the no contract options available to them.
I just want 64gb iPhone to have 64 damn gb, not 50 something. Same goes for 16, 32, 128, 256, 512 -> whatever comes next. Give us the REAL capacity.