Good riddance to the 16GB iPhone!

Apple has long made it a point to make the cheapest version of the iPhone come with 16GB of storage, with the next step up being 64GB. But rumors coming from iPhone contractor Foxconn indicate that the iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 (depending on what Apple calls it) will have 32GB of storage in the cheapest model.

David Nield reports for Digital Trends:

As we get closer to September, the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6C rumors have been coming thick and fast. The latest tip-off to come from inside the supply chain suggests that Apple’s getting ready to ditch the 16GB storage level, and that this year’s models will only be available with 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB of storage.

The prediction comes courtesy of Foxconn sources speaking to MIC Gadget so take the news as very much unofficial for the time being. Still, it might be worth preparing yourself for the disappearance of the 16GB edition of the phone — it’s not very practical these days, but it does give buyers a budget iPhone option if they spend most of their lives in the cloud.

More at Digital Trends

If this rumor is true then I think it will be a great thing for anybody looking to get the cheapest model of the next iPhone. 32GB is a much better base option in terms of storage than the anemic 16GB currently offered in the cheapest version of the iPhone.

Why did Apple go with 16GB iPhones in the first place?

Some of you might be wondering why on earth Apple would offer a 16GB iPhone at all? Well, it has to do with up-selling people to the 64GB model iPhone. For example, right now you can buy a 16GB iPhone starting at $199 on Apple’s online store. But the 64GB model is only $100 more. In a nutshell, the low storage of the 16GB makes the 64GB model look like a much better deal.

The 64GB storage option doesn’t cost Apple much more than the 16GB but it allows them to significantly raise the price of an iPhone. So gently nudging customers over to the 64GB version of the iPhone has helped Apple increase the profitability of the iPhone in a big way. 

Apple has been doing this for quite a long time, and it shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone. The company is terrific at encouraging its customers to choose the more profitable models in all of its product lineups. Up-selling is nothing new in business, so it’s not like Apple has been committing some sort of crime by doing it.

Apple may also have felt that the 16GB model would encourage some customers to make use of its iCloud service. I can understand why Apple would think that way, but iCloud isn’t much use for games and apps that require a lot of storage space. And not everyone wants to store their photos in the cloud either. 

Good riddance to the 16GB iPhone!

I’m very glad that it looks like Apple is about to get rid of the 16GB iPhone. The 16GB model is just too little storage in an age of bigger and bigger apps and games, and gorgeous photos that require significant amounts of storage. Customers that purchase a 16GB iPhone are not really getting an optimal experience given today’s storage needs.

And remember that Apple is famous for providing a superb experience to its iPhone customers. Apple’s reputation in that regard is very important to the company, and anything that has the potential to taint that is certainly going to make Apple reconsider its position on iPhone storage. And I think that that is exactly what’s happening with a move from 16G to 32GB in the cheapest version of the iPhone. 

And I think Apple will still be able to up-sell people from the 32GB model to the 64GB one since it is still double the storage on the 64GB model. Frankly though, I’d actually like Apple to make the jump soon to 64GB, 128GB and 256GB versions of the iPhone. 64GB really should be the bare minimum in terms of iPhone storage these days.

Unfortunately, Apple is probably going to take at least another year or longer before it gets to the point where it offers 64GB in the cheapest iPhone, to say nothing of making the most expensive version with 256GB instead of 128GB. But at least the company is starting to move in the right direction if the reports about a jump from 16GB to 32GB are actually true.

I’m not alone in my dislike of the 16GB iPhone, Apple redditors seemed quite happy that the company might be dumping the 16GB model as you can see from this sampling of comments in a recent thread:

AlbinoAlex: “Thank God. More than any other device, the iPhone absolutely needs a lot of storage. One 3-minute HD video (like filming a karaoke session or a song played at a concert) can take over 500MB! At 2 videos/GB, you won’t get very far with 16. Heck, my entire music library alone is 8GB.

As much as there are people who say they do well with a 16GB phone, it’s clear that the majority demands a larger capacity. After all, the 64GB model of iPhone 6/6+ was the highest in demand, and had the worst wait time.”

Overlord: “Finally, they have weird ideas like keeping the 16 Gb and dropping the 32 GB…Good to see them thinking straight at last.”

ThatEvilGuy: “It was not weird, it was greedy. They knew 16GB was useless, they wanted to push people to upgrade to 64GB. But people probably still bought 16GB and then complained. The reason they might drop 16GB is that lowering people’s product satisfaction is not worth the tiny profit they get from push few users to 64GB.”

iReddit: “YES!!! Thank GOD!!! Right now I’m trying my best to manage 3GB on my iPhone. Honestly 16GB just doesn’t cut it anymore maybe, 2-3 years ago it worked. Just with some 1080p videos, pictures, few apps and a high graphic game. That pretty much takes up all if not most of your GBs. It’s bad enough apple uses 4.5GB of the 16GB, and we’re left with 11.5GB to work with.

iCloud is nice, but I had to upgrade to the 20GB and I have 7.5GB of that left. I have my backup, but the years…. of videos and picture ate most of it. haha…

HEY 32GB!!! (Standard) I say AMEN to that lol. Since we’re upgrading GB just add another GB to the RAM :)”

Dylan: “Hmmm I might buy my first IPhone if this is the case…”

Driftless: “It better have more than 1GB of RAM as well.”

Hybrid: “Yea I think we’ve reached a point where more RAM to stop crashes and constant tab reloading is more higher requirement than storage size shifting. But then again I got suckered into buying the 128GB so I guess don’t get a say… Still, more ram please?”

BigPoppa: “I know I’d love if they introduced a base model at 32gb for the standard $200.”

Compost: “The base model is $649. Stop thinking that because your carrier subsidizes the price that they actually cost $200.”

More at Reddit

As you can tell from the comments, just about everybody will be happy to see Apple get rid of the 16GB iPhone and replace it with a 32GB base model. But none of this has been officially announced by Apple just yet, so take it all with a grain of salt. I have my fingers crossed that this rumor is true, but it’s a good idea to temper your enthusiasm for a 32GB base model iPhone until Apple actually confirms it.

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