Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Fewer people are buying the higher storage options for the iPhone 16 compared to the iPhone 15.
- The number of iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max buyers who upgraded from base storage has dropped by 4%.
- The decrease is even greater for those who bought the iPhone 16 and Plus.
Storage size has long been an important factor when buying a new phone. No one wants to have to pick and choose which apps, photos, and videos stay or go to avoid running out of space. With the emergence of cloud services and streaming, however, storage capacity has become less of a limitation, and that seems to be affecting what iPhone models people are buying.
In a study by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), data shows that fewer iPhone buyers are choosing models with higher storage capacity than before. This is the case for the iPhone 16 series, at least — the opposite is true for what they called legacy devices (the SE or older models).
According to the study, 48% of people who bought the iPhone 15 series in 2023 chose to upgrade from base storage. Meanwhile, within the same time frame in 2024, only 44% of those who purchased the iPhone 16 Pro or Pro Max decided to upgrade. The decline is even greater for those who bought the base iPhone 16 or the Plus, coming in at 42%.
Consumer Intelligence Research Partners
The study theorizes that the reason for this change could be that people are realizing that they only need the base level of storage these days. It suggests that base-level storage has “grown as fast or faster than users’ needs.” And with today’s high-speed cellular and Wi-Fi connections, people are more willing to rely on streaming, off-phone storage, and backup than before.
It would be interesting to see the numbers for Android, particularly the Galaxy S24 and the Pixel 9. If storage has indeed grown as fast or faster than users’ needs, we would likely see the trend reflected in more than just Apple’s phone.
Conversely, it was found that the number went up for those who bought legacy iPhones. In 2024, 48% of people who bought the iPhone SE, 14, or 15 opted for higher storage. That’s a jump of 10% compared to buyers of the iPhone SE, 13, or 14 in 2023.
It’s believed that there could be at least two explanations for this. One is that legacy phone buyers have more recently experienced running into storage limitations on their previous device and they don’t want that to happen again. These people probably also plan to use their new phone for longer, and paying for more storage helps to future-proof the device. The other explanation is that legacy phones are less expensive, so the consumer may be more willing to pay a little extra for more storage.
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