Apple's iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max use a new A16 Bionic processor that costs $110 to produce. Therefore, the company's latest iPhone model houses a microchip that is more than 2.4 times as expensive as the A15 chip used in iPhone 13 Pro units released the previous year, Nikkei Asia reported via MacRumors.
The comparison of Apple's Chipsets
The A16 Bionic chip has a higher price tag than the A15 since it is made using TSMC's 4nm process, whereas the A15 is a 5nm chip. The price of iPhone chips may continue to rise as miniaturization advances.
In the report by Phone Arena, the A15 contains 15 billion transistors. This is compared to the approximately 16 billion transistors found in the A16 Bionic.
Because of the reduced size of the transistors that are employed in lower process nodes or nanometers (nm), the total number of transistors that may be found on a chip can be increased. With this, a chip with a higher transistor count has a greater power output and is more energy-efficiency.
The multi-core performance of the A16 chip is around 15% to 17% quicker than the A15 chip, according to Geekbench 5 score results. The A16 chip is exclusive to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, while the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus have the same A15 chip with a five-core GPU present in iPhone 13 Pro models.
Rumors on Upcoming iPhone Models
Following this report, there are rumors that the A17 chip in iPhone 15 Pro models will be based on TSMC's 3nm process.
A report published by DigiTimes this week claims that TSMC will begin volume production of 2nm chips in 2025. Both of these rumors suggest that the price of iPhone chips could continue to rise.
iPhone 14 in the World Market
Nikkei Asia partnered with Fomalhaut Techno Solutions, a Japanese research firm specializing in reverse engineering and bill-of-materials analysis, to inspect the latest Apple device.
They found that the average production costs for the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max have increased by approximately 20% compared to the equivalent models from the previous generation.
Even though Apple did not raise prices for its most recent iPhone models in the United States and some other markets, the report claims that the company's profit margins have "likely shrunk" due to higher production costs.
However, prices have increased in key markets such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan despite the strength of the U.S. dollar compared to other currencies.
Possible Price Hike in 2023
Another rumor is that Apple may replace the Pro Max model with an iPhone 15 Ultra. This might result in the release of the most costly and priciest iPhone to date.
Apple is known to be able to differentiate its models in ways other than the size of its displays. For instance, the very first periscope camera on an iPhone might only be available on the iPhone 15 Ultra when it is released next year.
If the iPhone 15 Ultra is the only model with a periscope camera next year, it will have better optical zoom than the iPhone 15 Pro with a higher price tag.
Related Article: iPhone 14 Pro Camera Review: Pros and Cons in Travel Photography; Better Than Galaxy S22?
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Written by Trisha Kae Andrada
