Recent Speculations on Apple’s iPhone 16 Series
Recently, a significant price drop of various Apple devices, including the iPhone 15 series, sparked heated discussions online. Some people viewed this as a routine holiday promotion by Apple, nothing to be surprised about. However, others speculated that this move was a desperate attempt by Apple to boost iPhone sales. Since the full return of Huawei smartphones, it is an undeniable fact that Apple’s sales in the high-end smartphone market have slowed down. As we anticipate the release of the iPhone 16 series in September this year, will there be any slightly surprising changes to look forward to?
From the leaked information currently circulating online, there seems to be no such feeling. Instead, in terms of design, Apple seems to be playing it safe again. Recently, design sketches of the iPhone 16 series surfaced online, which left many people quite surprised. The front screen remains unchanged, still featuring the iconic “notched” design. Moreover, the area taken up by the dual punch holes doesn’t seem to have decreased at all, prompting some to question if the iPhone 16 simply reused the screen from the iPhone 15.
The changes to the rear camera, however, are quite significant. The oversized camera module is nowhere to be found; instead, it is replaced by a more compact design. However, the lenses appear to be larger. Since the vertical alignment of lenses from the iPhone X to the diagonal arrangement in later models, the iPhone 16 has reverted back to a vertical arrangement. Rumors suggest that Apple made this design choice to enable the standard version of the iPhone 16 to support spatial video recording, but this raises another question.
Every year, the sales volume of new iPhones reaches tens of millions or even hundreds of millions, while rumors suggest that the Vision Pro may only ship around 500,000 units in 2024 (subsequent production capacity may be increased, but is unlikely to exceed 1 million units). This stark contrast in numbers between Vision Pro and new iPhone sales implies that the vast majority of iPhone 16 users will not be able to effectively play spatial videos they shoot, rendering this feature somewhat meaningless, in the eyes of many.
However, personally, I believe that Apple’s intention is to first accumulate users for Vision Pro. Once the production capacity ramps up, the Vision Pro ecosystem can quickly become widespread. Yet, a dilemma arises: without purchasing Vision Pro, the spatial video recording capability of the iPhone becomes meaningless. The high price of Vision Pro discourages many potential buyers. This strategy might actually boost the sales of older iPhone models.
Apple may have factored this in as well. For users who have no intention of purchasing Vision Pro, buying a new iPhone 16 like this would be unnecessary as slightly older iPhones can still meet their daily needs. This could be one of Apple’s methods of filtering out the Vision Pro user base.
Moreover, foreign media reports indicate that there is nothing particularly exciting about the iPhone 16 to look forward to. It seems that we will have to wait until Apple incorporates the 2m chip into iPhones for significant changes in the device’s functionality, which is not expected to happen before next year.