At the company’s Glowtime event on Monday, Apple announced new Watches, AirPods, and, yes, new iPhones. The iPhone 16 series is almost here and this year’s crop may leave some people in a quandary.
Apple rationalized its formerly messy iPad lineup last year, making the distinction between the iPad Air line and the iPad Pro line more clear by putting its Fastest Processor Ever™ in the Pro and moving the price up the the Highest Price For an iPad Ever™.
The innovations just keep coming.
Now, weirdly, it’s done the almost opposite with the iPhone line. There is still a fair bit of light between the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Pro, but if you were previously all-in on the iPhone Pro, you might have reason to give the standard line a second look this time around.
There are a couple of reasons Apple did this, other than just to mess with us. First, the standard iPhone line has struggled in comparison to the Pro line for years now. Every fall we are treated to headlines about how no one wants the non-Pro iPhone, as if it were a problem. But when it’s because people are splurging on the iPhone with the best camera, how is that a problem for Apple? Those cameras, by the way… they’re The Best Cameras Apple’s Ever Made™. Every year. How do they do it? It’s a mystery.
Incidentally, the chicken salad sandwich at Caffè Macs? It’s The Best Chicken Salad Sandwich Apple Has Ever Made™. True story. The egg salad, though? No longer The Best They’ve Ever Made™. They started putting celery in it. Gross. Who asked for that? Celery is like the AI of sandwiches.
Anyway, the other reason the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro are more alike than previous lines is, yes, AI. Apple says that in order to run that AI stuff no one really asked for, it had to put an A18 processor into the iPhone 16 (the iPhone 16 Pro has an A18 Pro chip, because Pro). This advanced processor will also let the iPhone 16 run even more advanced games like Honor of Kings, a game coming to iOS early next year that is not Fortnite, so even people in the U.S. will be able to play it.
Apple also gave the device an Action button, the new Camera Control button, and a 48MP camera with 2x optical zoom that can do spatial capture. If that wasn’t enough, it comes in actual colors, unlike the iPhone 16 Pro. It’s got a lot going for it.
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So now how much would you pay? $799? Oh, good, because that’s how much it costs. The iPhone 16 Pro still starts at $200 more and you still get more, but maybe not as much. You get a better processor (but not quite as betterer), a slightly bigger, always-on screen, and a still better camera.
That $200 doesn’t seem to cover quite as much as it used to, though.
This doesn’t really confuse the iPhone lineup as badly as the iPad lineup, but it does compress it. What could really confuse it, though, is the introduction of the 4th-generation iPhone SE next year. The new iPhone SE is expected to also feature an A18 processor to take advantage of Apple Intelligence and still come at a sub-$500 price. Apple still offers the iPhone 15 at $699 and even the iPhone 14 at $599, neither of which can “do the AI”, although both have better cameras than the 4th-generation SE will likely have. It’s possible Apple will discontinue the iPhone 14 with the introduction of the new SE to rationalize the lineup a bit.
While this might cause more people to think twice, maybe it will fix a problem for Apple: how to make the standard iPhone a success in the shadow of the Pro line. If people are just buying iPhones Pros instead, that’s not a problem. But if they’re buying Android phones, then it is. Whatever the case, that $799 is looking like a nice price this year.