When someone says that Apple’s greed has no limits, I want to start cursing and strongly convince this person of the opposite. After all, is it really possible to call a company greedy, which, firstly, is focused on making a profit, and, secondly, has not raised the prices of its smartphones for years, regularly carrying out comprehensive upgrades? Compare the iPhone XR, which at one time cost $749, and the iPhone 13 mini, which, with a much more advanced filling, costs $50 less. It is a pity that it simply could not continue indefinitely, and this year everything will change dramatically.
This year, Apple is only two out of four new generation iPhone will receive the new A16 Bionic processor, said analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, known for the accuracy of his forecasts. It’s about top iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. The remaining two models – iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max – will be content with last year’s A15 chipset, which is used in previous generation smartphones.
Differences between iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro
According to one version, Apple plans to abandon equipment new iPhones 2022 processor A16 Bionic out of a desire to more effectively separate top-end smartphones from basic ones. Allegedly, this is necessary in order to push consumers to buy the Pro and Pro Max models. After all, cheap devices of the flagship line will be bought anyway, but advanced devices are in greatest demand only at the start.
This version is not meaningless. If we look at the statistics iPhone sales even in Russia, we will see that people are primarily attracted to inexpensive devices, albeit very conditionally. According to the M.Video-Eldorado network, according to the results of 2020 (there is no report for 2021 yet), the first places in terms of sales in money are occupied mainly by the basic iPhone models. These are the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12. In other countries, the situation is quite similar.
Despite the rejection of new processors, base models iPhone 2022 still waiting for some kind of upgrade. For example, in the operating room. The RAM of the iPhone 14 will be equal to the same 6 GB of RAM as the top ones. Unless the type of memory will be different: LPDDR4X for the iPhone 14 and 14 Max versus LPDDR5 for the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. Older devices rely on more modern and faster RAM, which is logical.
What will be the iPhone 14
But globally classic iPhone 14 will be closer to the models of the past generation than the new one. In addition to the fact that the camera of new products is likely to remain the same as that of the iPhone 13, you should not expect changes in appearance. The promised double cutout for Face ID (most likely it will be a new and more advanced generation of the face scanner) and only the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max will receive the front camera. And the basic devices will leave the usual bangs.
It can be quite difficult to believe in such a snap approach, and this is understandable. In the end, all previous years in Cupertino only improved their smartphones with each new model. However, a paradigm shift has been asking for a long time, says Eldar Murtazin, editor-in-chief of Mobile-Review.com. In his opinion, Apple can no longer follow the pace of development of the iPhone, while maintaining the old retail prices, primarily due to the production crisis and rising costs of materials.
iPhone 14 price
Prerequisites for iPhone price increases (or their simplifications) appeared far from today, and the reason for this is not at all the growth of the dollar against the ruble, which has nothing to do with it at all. Last year, we said that the TSMC plant, which produces for Apple processors, raised the purchase price of A15 Bionic chipsets for her by 20%. This was a forced step that the plant took due to a shortage of semiconductors in order to produce the volume of components required by the company.
With aluminum as a raw material, if you look at the market, serious changes are also taking place. Since the fall of last year, when this metal cost around $2,500 a ton, it has risen in price to $3,500. And it is a key material in the production of not only the iPhone, but all other devices of the company, many of which are made entirely of aluminum. Accordingly, the company cannot keep the price of its smartphones at the same level when the components used in production are rising in price.
Apple’s current goal is to make its smartphones more profitable for itself, not for the consumer. Therefore, expect a reduction iPhone 14 prices compared to the iPhone 13 is not worth it. But what’s the point of taking a new product with old hardware, which, taking into account the natural cheapening of last year’s model, will cost even more? The thing is that the iPhone 14 will be bought anyway in the absence of alternatives, follows from the words of Eldar Murtazin.
Which iPhone to buy in 2022
As you can see, not the most rosy future awaits us. Top iPhones, will certainly remain on the market, but many simply cannot afford them. Therefore, most likely the market will be focused on those very new-old iPhone 14, which will be the best option in terms of price-quality ratio. Well, let them, technically they will be closer to the iPhone 13.
After all, Apple has a lot of experience limiting old smartphones with not-yet-old hardware and elevating newer ones through it. But they can simply rename A15 to A16, if people feel calmer that way. Apple Watch has done this in the past. So why not do the same with smartphones? Still, optimization of hardware and an increase in RAM will clearly give some kind of performance boost. It will be shown to users who are more interested in checkers than driving.
