Roger Fingas
A sticker claimed to be from a returned "iPhone 7" prototype at Foxconn may reinforce rumors that Apple is raising base storage on the device to 32 gigabytes.
The sticker identifies the prototype as "1902 of 3000," with a return date of Aug. 29, according to regular Twitter leak source The Malignant, who commented that "testing season is over." The device is labeled as a "D10," something consistent with earlier leaked photos of an alleged "iPhone 7" running Apple test software.
The Malignant added that Apple had at least three prototype varieties, including the D10, D11, and D12. Rumors once indicated that the company was considering three different "iPhone 7" variants — one of them possibly being the "Pro" — but regardless, Apple is believed to have settled on a standard/Plus split.
Several credible reports have pointed to Apple increasing default storage to 32 gigabytes, presumably because memory prices have fallen and the 16 gigabytes offered on earlier iPhones is now impractical. Both apps and iOS itself have gradually increased in size, and even people who rely mostly on cloud services like Apple Music or Google Photos need room to cache their media. The iPhone 6s can shoot 4K video, but 16-gigabyte models can save only a tiny amount.
It remains to be seen if Apple will double storage on other models as well, as sometimes claimed, which would put top end models at 256 gigabytes. The company is set to announce its new iPhones on Sept. 7.
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Wesley Hilliard
AppleInsider Staff
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
9 Comments
It's time for base model 32GB iPhone and 256GB Macbook pro.
Hallelujah! My dad gets an iPhone every other year or so from his job. Even he needs more than 16 gigabytes now. It's about damn time Apple.
Still not enough!
Sincerely yours,
A. Hole Troll
What cracks me up is that people don't understand how wickedly clever this is for Apple, from a PROFIT standpoint.
We saw it on both of the Pro model iPads...
Jump right from 32 to 128; & make the difference in price between 1st and 2nd $150 now, instead of $100.
I'm going to assume that pretty much none of us use the entry level 16, yeah?
Meaning that we all are accustomed now to paying $750 for 64, not $650 for 16.
Soooo, if they follow iPad pricing (HIGHLY likely), we all have a difficult decision... save a $100 by accepting half what we currently buy- a new 32 @ $650, instead of our 64 @ $750... OR pony up an extra $50 for the new 128 @ $800!
Nobody is reporting o this, & I feel it's as plain as the nose on my face.
The vast majority of us are going to be contributing to raising Apple's RSU.
You have no clue how bad 16GB is from developer's POV. I'm sure Apple has to bump up the space because without the bump, future iOS updates could be very problematic. They already encountered problems when iOS 8 came out and many iPhone 16GB models could not update successfully as the extraction of the updates are taking too much space not accounting for user storage.
Sure, it maybe profitable for Apple to charge people more for incremental updates. But many SSD chip makers are already producing 64GB DIMMs that's where Android in 2017 will be mostly using while iPhones are still in 32GB land. It may actually cost less to go 64GB than 32GB from a cost perspective as economy of scale.