One of the most annoying issues with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is storage. Apple decided to keep the entry-level 16GB model for last year’s top flagships instead of making 32GB the base iPhone model. Many people have criticized Apple for this, especially after the unanticipated storage demands of iOS 8 came to light.
However, Apple is reportedly fixing that problem this year, and Samsung might even be involved.
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According to a new report from The Korea Times, Apple is negotiating a memory deal with Samsung for the upcoming iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus handsets. The iPhone maker is supposedly looking to increase the storage capacity of its new iPhones, the paper says.
That could very well mean that the 16GB option will disappear this year, though the report doesn’t state that specifically. It seems unlikely that Apple would be looking to increase the storage capacity on its high-end model so soon after introducing the 128GB option.
Samsung is looking to become an iPhone memory supplier, that much seems to be clear. Currently, the iPhone 6 memory market is divided among three of its competitors, including Toshiba (50%), SK Hynix (30%) and SanDisk (20%). Samsung, meanwhile, lost Apple’s business because of its higher memory prices, the report says.
“Samsung intends to increase the sale of 64GB NAND chips as Apple, which has three storage models – 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB – is impressed with the healthy sales of its iPhones with 64GB storage capacity in its target markets such as China and Europe,” the source told the Times.
Last year, Apple convinced many buyers to pay an extra $100 to get the 64GB model, thus increasing the iPhone’s average selling price. In previous years, the 64GB option was the top memory tier for an iPhone, costing shoppers an extra $200 compared to the entry-level iPhone’s price.
On the other hand, Apple has made plenty of moves on the software side that indicate that the company might also consider keeping its 16GB iPhones around.
