Apple Refuses to Kill the 16GB iPhone

blogs.wsj.com

4 points·kelseydh··5 comments

The 64 and 128 GB models subsidize the cheaper 16 GB in a way. Even though 16 GB still has a huge profit margin.

It will be interesting once people start doing teardowns, and we can see if apple has reduced or increased their margins

Given memory is so cheap it's the other way around. The 64GB and 128GB models are what allow Apple to enjoy such healthy margins on smartphone sales compared to other competitors.

Keeping the base model at 16GB is going to cause many to shell out an extra $100 to Apple for the 64GB. It's anti-consumer, but this move is going to make them boatloads of more money as the additional $100 is nearly completely extra profit for Apple.

It's a shameless money grabbing move they deserve condemnation for, but they will get away with it any way.

People are voting with their wallets. As long as people keep buying them, and they work great, then we'll be stuck with them.

The problem is that 16GB is seriously no longer enough local storage given the phone's 4k video and mini-video photos.

There's no doubt that Apple's greed here will significantly boost their short term profits, but in this case they are doing so at the expense of potentially long term pain, especially as consumers grow dissatisfied and frustrated with their iPhone's memory contraints.

OK I think you're right because in the end it will make the device (and the brand) look bad. And thinking about it some more, it also hurts users who don't have a say in which phone they get.

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