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Why the iPhone 6 Has the Same Base Memory As the iPhone 5

Posted by timothy on from the enough-is-enough-for-anybody dept.

Lucas123 writes When the iPhone 5 was launched two years ago, the base $199 (with wireless plan) model came with 16GB of flash memory. Fast forward to this week when the iPhone 6 was launched with the same capacity. Now consider that the cost of 16GB of NAND flash has dropped by more than 13% over the past two years. So why would Apple increase capacity on its $299 model iPhone 6 to 64GB (eliminating the 32GB model), but but keep the 16GB in the $199 model? The answer may lie in the fact that the 16GB iPhone is, and has been, by far the best selling model. IHS analyst Fang Zhang believes Apple is using that to push users to its iCloud storage service. Others believe restricting storage capacity allows Apple to afford the new features, like NFC and biometrics.

2 of 264 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Memory doesn't cost that much. by Concerned+Onlooker · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "Or, it's just more of keeping things simple."

    Or it's a matter of security and user experience. Without an SD card you won't be getting a bunch of forum posts like this one: http://www.droidxforums.com/fo...

    --
    http://www.rootstrikers.org/
  2. Re:Undespecced in every way even at $800 by sphealey · · Score: 3, Interesting

    _My_ car has a 6 bbl carburetor

    I listen to the spec war arguments among my under-30 developers and all I hear is my friends sitting around a garage in 1978 arguing over whose engine had more horsepower. HP which they could never use because of the poor state of tires, steering systems, and suspension design in the 1970s. I could pop a new chip in my 2012 family sedan and vaporize any of those 1970s garage rods at the stoplight with half the nominal horsepower. It is all about what suits the purpose, not who has the "better" spec numbers.

    sPh

    Interesting thing is that the majority of Android spec warrior techs I meet are adamant Microsoft partisans and not only hate all things Apple but Unix and Linux as well.