Hello everybody. Earlier this week, Ming-Chi Kuo, considered one of my favourite Apple analysts, reported that the Cupertino-based firm not solely plans to make use of essentially the most highly effective A16 chip completely for the iPhone 14 Professional and iPhone 14 Professional Max, however that it plans to take action for its subsequent iPhone launches as nicely.
This can be a crucial assertion, and I requested my sources to take just a few days to provide me the perfect and most correct reply they may. Right here’s what they should say:
That is the more than likely situation at this level, though there are nonetheless many particulars that should be labored out earlier than it occurs.
The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max will function the A15 Bionic chip. Extra particularly, they’ll include the A15 Bionic from the iPhone 13 Professional and iPhone 13 Professional Max, as it’s barely higher than the one within the iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 13.
My sources say that this doesn’t imply that Apple will overtly announce that the brand new iPhones will include an A15 Bionic. Slightly, the Cupertino-based firm may additionally name this chip “A16.” This transfer can be just like what the corporate did with the Apple Watch Sequence 7, which has an S6 processor, however Apple nonetheless known as it S7. The identical is anticipated to occur with the Apple Watch Sequence 8, which can have an “S8” chip that can truly be the identical S6 we already had within the Sequence 6 and Sequence 7. I’m not saying that’s a nasty factor within the smartwatch world, the place there’s no use for higher processors as a result of the corporate is especially centered on battery life and sensors, however it’s a complete completely different story after we are speaking about smartphones.
In recent times, the iPhone has all the time been essentially the most highly effective smartphone within the business, and nearly all different corporations barely handle to make a chip pretty much as good because the one Apple launched a yr in the past. However the public notion is not going to be that, and as a substitute, everybody will assume they’re getting a chip from final yr in a $799 telephone, and that’s a grievance that makes excellent sense. In spite of everything, it isn’t precisely low-cost.
Based on my sources, the “base” iPhone fashions will certainly use an old-generation chip any more, however as I mentioned, that doesn’t imply Apple will name it final yr’s chip. Apple may both name the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max chip “A16 Bionic” and “A16 Professional” for the iPhone 14 Professional and iPhone 14 Professional Max chip – or name each “A16 Bionic” and declare that the “Professional” model has been “enhanced to take full benefit of every part the Professional iPhones have to supply.”
In the intervening time, I’m leaning in the direction of the second possibility, even when the primary remains to be being thought-about inside the firm.
I’m fairly positive Tim Cook dinner isn’t simply going to leap up on stage and say, “And for iPhone 14, we’re going to place in final yr’s A15 Bionic chip!” That might be a horrible scenario for the PR division at Apple, so the corporate will both not point out it in the course of the occasion or simply name the chip A16 and provides itself time to arrange reply when folks discover, and that’s the extra believable situation proper now.
As a consequence of present inflation, the corporate is on the lookout for methods to scale back manufacturing prices and improve revenue margins. The fee distinction between placing in an A15 chip as a substitute of an A16 is likely to be about $10, and even if you happen to assume that’s not a lot, multiply it by the 100,000,000 iPhones Apple sells yearly, and also you’ll see that’s some huge cash, so even when Apple can minimize manufacturing prices by $20 or $30 per unit, that finally ends up being a ton of cash saved, and you’ll see why that is occurring.
To summarize: Overlook Apple calling the iPhone 14 and 14 Max’s chip “A15 Bionic,” even whether it is one, and look as a substitute at what occurred to the Apple Watch Sequence 7 and its processor. That’s all for in the present day.
Let me know within the feedback under what you consider this. I hope you discovered this text useful. As all the time, have a improbable day.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]