It seems Apple is betting big on the upcoming iPhone 16 series, both standard and the Pro models.
Given that Apple has finally entered the AI arena with Apple Intelligence and iOS 18 looks promising, Cupertino is reportedly increasing its chip order with long-time partner TSMC, according to a report from Taiwanese publication CTEE.
With everything lined up, Apple is getting ready to sell a whopping 90 to 100 million units of the iPhone 16. This is a big jump from the 80 to 90 million units of iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro the company expected to sell last September.
The report says both the regular iPhone 16 and Pro models will use chips from the A18 series. But this doesn’t mean all-new chips for everyone. In recent iPhones, Apple upgraded the Pro versions with new chips first, while the regular iPhones got similar upgrades later.
For instance, in the iPhone 15 series, the Pro and Pro Max had the A17 Pro chip, while the iPhone 15 and Plus used the A16. The iPhone 16 seems to follow a similar plan, even though the names of the chips are changing.
According to the report, the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will use the A18 chip, based on the A17 Pro design but made with a new process. Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 Pro models will get a new A18 Pro chip that’s supposed to be 15% to 20% faster for better graphics and AI tasks.
In any case, Apple seems to be preparing to sell more iPhones this year, and believe it or not, Apple Intelligence is the prime reason behind it. It’s probably because most Apple Intelligence features will require an iPhone 15 Pro or later to work, and people who skipped the iPhone 15 Pro might want to jump to the iPhone 16 series to enjoy Apple’s AI ride.