I can never figure out why Apple are so stingy with storage, ram and graphics. Providing decent specs, as well as the ability to upgrade and repair, would be such an easy way to further differentiate themselves in the market as an integrated software and hardware company…
What Apple is doing is what most every manufacturer of hardware products does. They want to keep their bill of material costs as low as possible and keep their margins as high as possible while still ensuring that their product meets all of the requirements it was designed to meet. Of course they also include enough growth margins for memory, storage, and performance demands they envision occurring over the service life of the product. Don’t forget that small cost savings at a single unit level may seem insignificant, but when multiplied over millions or hundreds of millions of units it does make a big difference to the bottom line.
As a software developer I have asked your same question many times, especially when I have to code around the imposed limitations. But software and firmware is morphable and can be updated much more easily than hardware. The hardware design needs to be nailed down as quickly as possible because of manufacturing constraints and timelines. But this is a software/firmware challenge, not a product consumer challenge. Plus, if my company isn’t getting good margins and making a profit, the software/firmware jobs are going to get slimmed down or go away. No matter how many pundits or observers may think these small pennywise cost decisions are trivial, they can have a big impact on a lot of people.
I also think a lot of technically inclined/aware users/fans focus on product specs as a product comparison benchmark rather than focusing on whether the as-built product does everything it needs to do without putting real limitations on their use of the product. There are obviously buyers who underestimate their needs and purchase a product that has insufficient memory, storage, or performance to meet their needs. I believe that these cases are outliers when it comes to most of the products that Apple builds. Apple knows this too and is one of the reasons why Apple feels very confident selling products with non-upgradable memory, storage, and core components. Apple isn’t cheaping out, they are very carefully building products that they know will satisfy the vast majority of their users while maintaining their own margins. It seems to be working.
Finally, I see lots of comments where people brag about the low CPU loading or how much free memory or free storage their machine is using when running their work. That’s all fine and good, but what is the cost of having all that unused capacity or potential? You may simply have paid for a lot more than you need. It’s like buying 50 bananas every week when I only eat 6 bananas a week. Sure, if a pack of monkeys suddenly starts knocking on my door I am definitely prepared to meet their demands. But those occasions are quite rare, at least so far. I can use the money I saved from buying too many bananas to buy something else, like avocados or a few more AirTags.
So if there are all sorts of design changes to improve cooling, Apple should stop selling cases for iPhones. Or design cases with features to support enhanced cooling. Seems wasteful to spend money designing cooling improvements, only to have the heat transfer muffled by a case.
Other than battery capacity, it is a bit of a travesty that ALL features are only available on the oversized two handed jumbo phone for a given model year.
i am pretty sure that Steve Jobs thought or said phones should be able to be used with one hand. I happen to agree with Steve on that.
In case you hadn’t realised, Steve Jobs died many years ago. What he said then is of no relevance whatsoever in current markets.
Unfortunately some people don't understand change. I'm pretty happy that my Mac mini doesn't have a beige plastic case and a tiny CRT screen.
And I'm sure many of the people who enjoy their Apple Pencils don't really give a damn that Steve didn't want a stylus for the tablets.
But some people bizarrely think of Steve as some sort of messiah instead of just a CEO with very human imperfections.
The Internet is a weirder place with each passing week. We get all types online.
Anyhow I'd score this particular rumor below 50% especially for a device that won't be out for another 13 months. It's not like it just passed DVT and is going to PVT. I believe that 12GB RAM prototypes exist and one of the designs might have a vapor chamber. But Apple prototypes lots of different combinations of components, features and specs and yet most don't see the light of day as a shipping product.
If you don't carry a purse, Apple's phone line has become increasingly untenable... if you also don't want to look like a loser schlub with a yard sale in his cargo shorts.
Once again the fraud of Apple's "sleek, elegant" phones stands out for all to see. Not only do the vast majority of people call the iPhone's design a failure by burying it in bulky, tacky cases... but they also have to wear bulky, tacky clothes to carry the bulky phone in its bulky case.
If they don’t like their phones shortly after, they can return them or
sell them. You found a pocket of people who wish they had smaller
phones. The market however points to people wanting larger phones, not
smaller phones.
Pfff. This ignores the fact that the mostly highly regarded iPhone is the original SE. "The market" is dominated by what, two or three players? Consumers did not demand that headphone jacks be removed from media-centric phones; "the market" colluded to screw the consumer by doing that.
Neither did consumers demand that SIM slots be removed from phones. But here we are, with that rip-off implemented.
Don't be a shill for corporations that are dry-humping you and laughing about it.
If you don't carry a purse, Apple's phone line has become increasingly untenable... if you also don't want to look like a loser schlub with a yard sale in his cargo shorts.
Once again the fraud of Apple's "sleek, elegant" phones stands out for all to see. Not only do the vast majority of people call the iPhone's design a failure by burying it in bulky, tacky cases... but they also have to wear bulky, tacky clothes to carry the bulky phone in its bulky case.
If they don’t like their phones shortly after, they can return them or
sell them. You found a pocket of people who wish they had smaller
phones. The market however points to people wanting larger phones, not
smaller phones.
Pfff. This ignores the fact that the mostly highly regarded iPhone is the original SE. "The market" is dominated by what, two or three players? Consumers did not demand that headphone jacks be removed from media-centric phones; "the market" colluded to screw the consumer by doing that.
Neither did consumers demand that SIM slots be removed from phones. But here we are, with that rip-off implemented.
Don't be a shill for corporations that are dry-humping you and laughing about it.
According to multiple sources the best selling iPhones of all time were the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. What was the predominant design change that differentiated the iPhone 6/6+ from all previous iPhones? Larger screens. Maybe Apple was on to something when they designed the iPhone 6/6+.
If you don't carry a purse, Apple's phone line has become increasingly untenable... if you also don't want to look like a loser schlub with a yard sale in his cargo shorts.
Once again the fraud of Apple's "sleek, elegant" phones stands out for all to see. Not only do the vast majority of people call the iPhone's design a failure by burying it in bulky, tacky cases... but they also have to wear bulky, tacky clothes to carry the bulky phone in its bulky case.
If they don’t like their phones shortly after, they can return them or
sell them. You found a pocket of people who wish they had smaller
phones. The market however points to people wanting larger phones, not
smaller phones.
Pfff. This ignores the fact that the mostly highly regarded iPhone is the original SE. "The market" is dominated by what, two or three players? Consumers did not demand that headphone jacks be removed from media-centric phones; "the market" colluded to screw the consumer by doing that.
Neither did consumers demand that SIM slots be removed from phones. But here we are, with that rip-off implemented.
Don't be a shill for corporations that are dry-humping you and laughing about it.
I’ve had an SE for many years. I liked it for many reasons. My eyesight is requiring me to get bigger phones. The sales for Android and iPhones points to bigger phones, not smaller phones.
Other than battery capacity, it is a bit of a travesty that ALL features are only available on the oversized two handed jumbo phone for a given model year.
i am pretty sure that Steve Jobs thought or said phones should be able to be used with one hand. I happen to agree with Steve on that.
A good deal of this is physics. Volume is a cubed function. Increases in size have a huge impact on the volume of the device. No way can apple get the same features in a 4” screened iPhone that they get into a 6” screen iPhone.
not to mention the market has spoken, look at the pressure to introduce larger screened phones when apple released the iPhone 4S. Even the 4” screen of the iPhone 5 was behind the times.
Admittedly, the screen sizes now are at the upper limit without folding technologies.
I'd have to agree based on what I'm reading. Until just a few minutes ago I was unaware the Pixel Pro Fold is using a vapor chamber and graphene thermal spreader to mitigate heat, just as rumored for the iPhone 17. Yes, the even larger displays will require foldables, and ever thinner ones, and solutions for the heat they generate.
Comments
As a software developer I have asked your same question many times, especially when I have to code around the imposed limitations. But software and firmware is morphable and can be updated much more easily than hardware. The hardware design needs to be nailed down as quickly as possible because of manufacturing constraints and timelines. But this is a software/firmware challenge, not a product consumer challenge. Plus, if my company isn’t getting good margins and making a profit, the software/firmware jobs are going to get slimmed down or go away. No matter how many pundits or observers may think these small pennywise cost decisions are trivial, they can have a big impact on a lot of people.
I also think a lot of technically inclined/aware users/fans focus on product specs as a product comparison benchmark rather than focusing on whether the as-built product does everything it needs to do without putting real limitations on their use of the product. There are obviously buyers who underestimate their needs and purchase a product that has insufficient memory, storage, or performance to meet their needs. I believe that these cases are outliers when it comes to most of the products that Apple builds. Apple knows this too and is one of the reasons why Apple feels very confident selling products with non-upgradable memory, storage, and core components. Apple isn’t cheaping out, they are very carefully building products that they know will satisfy the vast majority of their users while maintaining their own margins. It seems to be working.
Finally, I see lots of comments where people brag about the low CPU loading or how much free memory or free storage their machine is using when running their work. That’s all fine and good, but what is the cost of having all that unused capacity or potential? You may simply have paid for a lot more than you need. It’s like buying 50 bananas every week when I only eat 6 bananas a week. Sure, if a pack of monkeys suddenly starts knocking on my door I am definitely prepared to meet their demands. But those occasions are quite rare, at least so far. I can use the money I saved from buying too many bananas to buy something else, like avocados or a few more AirTags.
And I'm sure many of the people who enjoy their Apple Pencils don't really give a damn that Steve didn't want a stylus for the tablets.
But some people bizarrely think of Steve as some sort of messiah instead of just a CEO with very human imperfections.
The Internet is a weirder place with each passing week. We get all types online.
Anyhow I'd score this particular rumor below 50% especially for a device that won't be out for another 13 months. It's not like it just passed DVT and is going to PVT. I believe that 12GB RAM prototypes exist and one of the designs might have a vapor chamber. But Apple prototypes lots of different combinations of components, features and specs and yet most don't see the light of day as a shipping product.