Even if Apple raises iPhone 14 pricing, you might not pay more for the Pro models
When the original iPhone was released in June 2007, buyers had the option of choosing a model with 4GB of storage or one sporting 8GB. By September, it was apparent that 4GB was not enough storage and as a result, the 4GB option was dropped and a more expensive 16GB unit was made available. The 8GB model was dropped in price by $200 to $399 while the 16GB variant was priced at $499.
Apple could hike the minimum storage on the 2022 iPhone Pro models to 256GB
15 years have gone by and the demand for more storage from consumers (especially on a device that doesn't feature expandable storage) plus the amazing pace of technology has allowed Apple to offer the Pro iPhone models with as much as 1TB of storage. While Apple has increased the maximum amount of storage available on its handsets, it also has started to increase the minimum amount of storage available on the iPhone.
Analyst Kuo sees the MSRP of the iPhone 14 series rising by 15%
Starting with last year's iPhone 13 line, the minimum amount of storage was hiked from 64GB to 128GB. And according to TrendForce which mentioned it back in June, this year the basic Pro models will come with at least 256GB of storage. It's another difference between the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models that Apple hopes will drive more consumers to pick up one of the more expensive Pro units.
For example, Apple plans on powering the 6.1-inch iPhone 14 and 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Max (or Plus) with the currently used A15 Bionic chipset. The 6.1-inch iPhone 14 Pro and 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Pro Max will be equipped with the brand new A16 Bionic chipset. The older chip is built by TSMC using its second-generation 5nm process node, while the A16 Bionic will be manufactured using the foundry's 4nm process node.
The smaller the process node number, the higher the transistor count in a chip. This means that the A16 Bionic should contain more than the 15 billion transistors found in its predecessor. As a result, the newer chip should be more powerful and energy-efficient.
Other differences include the new "i cutouts" in the Pro models to replace the notch which will remain on the non-Pro units. The Pro models will also get a 48MP Wide rear camera with 8K recording capabilities as opposed to the 12MP sensor on the non-Pro phones. While all iPhone 14 models get 6GB of storage, the Pro models will use the faster LPDDR5 RAM chip compared to the LPDDR4X RAM that will be found on the non-Pro variants.
Technically, the price of the 256GB Pro models might remain the same
Besides having the 120Hz ProMotion display, the iPhone 14 Pro models will also come with an always-on display that will show the date, time, and widgets from the Lock Screen along with the battery life percentage which has just returned to iOS in the latest iOS 16 beta release.
Apple is expected to introduce the iPhone 14 series in a little over 4 weeks from now and top Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo sees the MSRP for the line rising 15% partly due to the 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Max replacing the cheaper 5.4-inch iPhone 13 mini. The other reason for the price hike has to with the expected increase in the price of the iPhone 14 Pro models which could start at $1,099 for the iPhone 14 Pro and $1,199 for the iPhone 14 Pro Max, $100 more than the starting price of the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max.
Here's the thing. The rumored pricing of $1,099 and $1,199 for the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max respectively would match the pricing of the 256GB iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max. And if Apple does decide to offer 256GB of storage as the basic configuration for the 2022 Pro models, that would mean that pricing could actually remain the same for the 256GB iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
To sum things up: Apple could be increasing the average cost of the iPhone 14 series by replacing the lowest priced iPhone 13 mini with the more expensive iPhone 14 Max, and might eliminate the lowest-priced Pro model by having the base model start with 256GB of storage. But this price rise could still be achieved if Apple keeps the price of the 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB Pro models the same,.
If TrendForce is right and the iPhone 14 Pro models start with 256GB of storage, we would expect the other options to include 512GB and 1TB.
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