If Your iPhone 6 Already Needs a Storage Upgrade, This Could Be Why

A new report suggests iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users might already be purchasing more data storage. Meanwhile, the Silicon Valley technology giant could be cashing in big.

The Apple analysis blog, Above Avalon, reported Thursday that Apple will rake in some $3 billion – yes, billion with a "B" – just by selling its 16-gigabyte iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The company is apparently banking on customers who purchase the least amount of storage offered to eventually run out of room for all their apps, music and other data.

A general view of the iPhone 6 at Apples Covent Garden store launch on September 19, 2014 in London, England. (Credit: Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images)

Even though Apple doubled the amount of storage on some phones when it rolled out its the devices earlier this year, the new iOS 8 operating system simply requires a lot more storage. And the least amount of storage now available on any new iPhone is just 16 gigabytes, or the same amount of storage as the bottom tier for its previous models.

Apple did increase its middle-tier storage capacity from 32 gigabytes to 64 gigabytes and its top-tier storage capacity from 64 gigabytes to 128 gigabytes. So if Apple knew enough to double the storage space on its middle and top-tier iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models, why wouldn't it do the same for the bottom-tier?

Above Avalon suggests that Apple could be trying to "get people to buy the 64GB option."

Apple's reasoning, according to Above Avalon, is if it keeps a 16 gigabyte storage tier for one more year as they are doing, more people would pay to upgrade to 64 gigabytes in the coming years and become dependent on that amount of storage even if Apple doubles the bottom-tier 16 gigabytes to 32 gigabytes.

On the other hand, if Apple would have upgraded the 16-gigabyte option to 32 gigabytes without changing the price, then the bottom-tier would have continued to be the most popular and perhaps even convince some of users who previously paid for 32 gigabytes to downgrade and pay less for the bottom-tier.

Above Avalon used the chart below to illustrate how exactly it believes Apple is saving $3 billion: 

Image source: Above Avalon

"If Apple keeps doubling the lower tier, the lower model, at a certain point, most people are just going to buy that model," Above Avalon author Neil Cybart told the Huffington Post. "For most people, that's enough. The average selling price of the phone starts to decline. For Apple, that's a longer-term concern."

While some might look at this and call it corporate greed or anti-consumerism, Cybart said Apple could be using inadequate storage capacities to help it keep selling its new models.

"A case can be made that Apple is looking to get users dependent on higher storage capacities...by carefully guiding customers into a particular iPhone model each year. I suspect Apple kept the 16GB iPhone 6 [and] 6 Plus around in order to make future storage jumps, across all three tiers, a bit more manageable," Cybart writes.

(H/T: Huffington Post)

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