The iPhone 14 series will launch later on this year but there’ll be a twist with this year’s models – and not in a good way.

Usually, when a new iPhone comes out, it runs a brand new A-series chip. That’s been the case for as long as I can remember. But in 2022, this will change and that is bad news for Apple’s customers but good news for Apple’s profit margins.

Multiple sources are now reporting that the iPhone 14 and the iPhone 14 Max, Apple’s base-model iPhone models, will run the exact same chipset as the iPhone 13, meaning the A15. If you want the new A16 CPU, you’ll have to pay a premium for it and go with either the iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 14 Pro Max.

And this isn’t because of global chip shortages, either. According to Ming-Chi Kuo, this is just Apple’s new strategy for extracting as much profit margin as possible from its iPhones going forwards. Spoiler: this means the iPhone 15 will run the iPhone 14 Pro’s chipset, and the iPhone 16 will run the iPhone 15 Pro’s chipset. Do you see what’s happening here?

Apple’s New iPhones Will Run Older Chipsets

If you like iPhones but also don’t like paying over $1000 for a phone, you’re always going to gravitate towards the base-level models, the iPhone 13, the iPhone 14, and, of course, the incoming iPhone 14 Max. And usually, that’d be fine; you’d get the exact same chipset as the more expensive models, minus a few superfluous features.

But if you’re running an iPhone 13 and you upgrade to the iPhone 14, you’ll be running the exact same chipset. And that’s never happened before. This is why I’d advise ALL current iPhone 13 users to AVOID the iPhone 14 like the plague – unless you plan on going Pro.

Make no mistake: this is a strategic move from Apple. Kuo even says the company has updated its Pro sales projections from 40% of total iPhone 14 sales to 60%, indicating it knows this strategy will force people into paying more.

Of course, there could be a backlash. We haven’t had a good ol’ Apple backlash in years, so when the iPhone 14 does get a release date and Apple confirms that it’ll run the same processor found inside the iPhone 13, Twitter and other social media platforms will almost certainly catch fire in a raging ball of contempt, memes, and attacks on Apple’s insatiable desire for ever larger profit margins while us plebs suck up unprecedented cost of living increases. Stay classy, Apple.

Which iPhone 14 Models Will Have A16 CPU?

If you want your next iPhone to run Apple’s brand new A16 CPU, you have two options: the iPhone 14 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro Max. You will have to pay a minimum of $999/£999 for one of these phones, while the range-topping iPhone 14 Pro Max with 1TB of storage is expected to retail for around $1600/£1600, making it the most expensive iPhone ever released.

If you go Pro, you will get better performance, a better camera, and access to features that are not available on the standard iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max. But, again, you will have to pay for the privilege and the price gap between the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro will remain significant. And that’s before you even factor in the rising costs of living, inflation, and other horrible goings-on in the economy at large.

I usually always buy the base model iPhone; the Pro just seems too expensive for me. I’d never use all of its additional bells and whistles. But this CPU stuff has really annoyed me. The current A15 is a powerful chip, sure, but that’s not the issue – it’s the principle. Apple seems to expend far too much energy working on schemes to increase the overall price of its products at the expense of its user base.

Need an example? Apple charges insane money to upgrade the storage on its Macs, operating under the assumption that no one knows comparative storage options from third parties – third parties that Apple actually sources its SSDs from – are about two-thirds cheaper. And now this, with the iPhone 14?

As an Apple user, this is the one thing that really irks me about the company, especially since it makes such a song and dance about caring about people and the community. When in actual reality, Apple is no different from any other mega-corporation: all it cares about is profit, profit margin, and reducing costs.