Apple Adjusts iOS Device Storage Tiers and Prices
by Brandon Chester on September 7, 2016 8:25 PM EST
Today Apple made a number of announcements, including the year's major update to the iPhone in the form of the iPhone 7, and the second generation Apple Watch, known as the Apple Watch Series 2. One of the smaller announcements of the day was a shake-up of the prices and storage tiers on iOS devices. To a large extent this addresses one of the major criticisms of Apple's devices, which is that they've kept the base model at 16GB of internal storage for much longer than competing devices. I've compiled the changes that Apple has made to storage capacities and pricing across the iPhone and iPads lines in the charts below:
| Apple iPhone Line | |||
| Apple iPhone SE | Apple iPhone 6s | Apple iPhone 6s Plus | |
| Old Price | $399/499 16/64GB |
$649/749/849 16/64/128GB |
$749/849/949 16/64/128GB |
| New Price | $399/449 16/64GB |
$549/649 32/128GB |
$649/749 32/128GB |
| Apple iPad Line | |||||
| Apple iPad Mini 2 | Apple iPad Mini 4 | Apple iPad Air 2 | Apple iPad Pro 9.7 | Apple iPad Pro 12.9 | |
| Old Price | $269 16GB |
$399/499/599 16/64/128GB |
$399/499 16/64GB | $599/749/899 32/128/256GB |
$799/949/1099 32/128/256GB |
| New Price | $269 32GB |
$399/499 32/128GB |
$399/499 32/128GB |
$599/699/799 32/128/256GB |
$799/899/999 32/128/256GB |
There are two parts to the changes made today. The first is that Apple has eliminated the 16GB storage tier on every device except for the iPhone SE. It would have been really great to see 16GB removed from the whole lineup, but I suspect that the iPhone SE's margins are already lower than Apple would like. However, to keep the upgrade pricing in line with the other devices, the 64GB iPhone SE now only has a $50 premium over the 16GB model. On every other device, the 16GB storage tier has become 32GB, and 64GB has become 128GB, with prices being kept at the same point.
The second change pertains to the iPad Pro devices, where the storage already started at 32GB and had upgrade tiers of 128GB and 256GB which each required an additional $150 on top of the starting price. With these Apple has maintained the same base price and storage tiers, but the upgrade price has dropped to $100 to bring it in line with the rest of Apple's iOS devices.
While none of these changes are anything groundbreaking, it does address a longstanding problem with the iPhone and iPad. Even with cloud storage for music and other media, with new features like Live Photos and 4K video recording, the storage pressure on iOS devices has become much greater while storage capacities remained constant. Dropping prices on iPad storage upgrades also makes the larger capacity models more accessible, and bumping up capacities on the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 4 make them more useful as media devices.
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damianrobertjones - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link
In that case why hasn't anyone matched the camera in the Nokia 1020?MacBAir - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link
There's a lot of variables while defining what makes a great camera. Not taking 25h to process one shot, or melting while recording a 4k video is one of them.StevoLincolnite - Friday, September 9, 2016 - link
There are dozens of Phones which have a superior camera to the iPhone.Not all of them have the issues you so eloquently describe, fanboy.
fanofanand - Friday, September 9, 2016 - link
Yes, because so many Android phones take 25 hours to process a shot. Can someone ban this shill?djc208 - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link
Hit hard how? These "price cuts" bring their old models in line with the flagship models from those "competitors", who are honestly more worried about the new Chinese and Korean phones that are offering a lot of the same capability for half the price.Most of the new "capabilities" were tried by at least one of their competitors before, Apple may figure out how to do it better but I wouldn't bet on it, and iOS needs to get better because it's too simple for a world where you're trying to sell iPad Pros as a low end laptop replacement.
It's people in a gated community that are amazed by the stuff everyone else already decided they didn't really care about.
StevoLincolnite - Friday, September 9, 2016 - link
How to pick an Apple Fanboy who is full of crap.* No Headphone jack on iPhone 7.
* Only HD and below resolution screens.
* Far from having the best camera sensor in a phone.
* Expensive.
* No MicroSD.
* No removable battery.
* No full waterproofing. (Only water resistance.)
Shall I go on?
Donkey2008 - Saturday, September 10, 2016 - link
4K is definitely good for VR, but aside from that it isn't something to brag about unless you have bionic eyes. I have no doubt that Android OEMs will eventually release phones with Dolby surround sound speakers to fire up Android sales and give the uber-nerd crowd another reason to brag to their iPhone owning friends how superior their phones are.zeeBomb - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link
APPLE AT FULL FORCE. As a Canadian, I ain't too worried getting a 32GB iPhone 6S. Than a 16GB the same price a year ago 😁MikhailT - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link
SE 64gb did get a price cut to 450$.Qasar - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link
650+ for iphones?? no thanks.. too over priced... i'll stay with my S5, pay half the price.. and grab a micro SD card, say 64 gigs, and STILL have money left over ...even the SE is too much compared to other options... and some people get new phones EACH year ??? no wonder i have heard rumbles some carriers are thinking about dropping subsidizing new phones and making people PAY for the phone THEM SELF....