Apple’s getting bullish ahead of the launch of its iPhone 16 series, as reports confirm it has just ordered a cool 100 million A18 chipsets for its new iPhone range.
While Samsung is embroiled in a chip-related existential crisis, with Qualcomm’s price increases, poor yields for its Exynos 2500, and even talk of a MediaTek partnership, Apple is preparing for what some analysts believe could be the biggest iPhone launch in history.
Apple Will No Longer Treat Non-Pro iPhone Users Like Second-Class Citizens
Apple has apparently just ordered 100 million A18 chipsets, or so say sources in China, and this is significant for two reasons: first, if it is true (and that’s not a given), it’d mean all of Apple’s iPhone 16 series models will be running on the same chip, which would be a huge boon for non-Pro users, who traditionally tend to get mugged off with last year’s SoC.
The second reason it is significant is because ordering 100 million – or 90 million as some estimates believe – is a huge number of chipsets, which tells us another couple of things. The most important being that Apple is feeling very confident about what it’s coming to market with and is expecting some kind of super-cycle, the likes of which we haven’t seen for a good long while.
There Could Be A Pro-Model A18 CPU, Though…
There is talk of two distinct chipsets inside the A18 series, a Pro model for the Pro and Pro Max and a standard version for the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus. But the fact Apple isn’t using last year’s CPU inside the 16 and 16 Plus is definitely a turn up for the books.
And speaking of performance, word on the street suggests Apple’s A18 could be a very, very significant update, bringing sizeable updates – both to performance and overall power management – that should translate into massive gains for all models, the base ones included. Other reports suggest all models will come with 8GB of RAM as well, although I’ll believe that when I see it.
Expensive Android Phones Open Up Unique Opportunities For Apple’s iPhone 16
Qualcomm’s hiking its prices massively in 2025; reports suggest it will be charging up to 30% more for its Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset. This is partly why Samsung is scrambling to find an alternative if its Exynos 2500 continues to be problematic. The knock-on effect of this is, however, that ALL Android phones will get more expensive as a result of Qualcomm’s dominant position in the market.
MediaTek could make a lot of new friends in 2025 and, should Samsung manage to fix its yield issues with the Exynos 2500, it too could see an upshot in business off the back of Qualcomm’s alarming price increases.
All of which leads directly into Apple’s favor. If it can keep the price of its iPhone roughly the same as they were last year, all while the cost of Android phones is going up, that’s going to make for some pretty compelling marketing material. Even more so if the A18 chipset is as potent as everybody is saying.
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