I upgraded from a 64GB iPhone X to a 256GB iPhone 14 Professional final yr, skipping the 128GB mannequin out of concern it wouldn’t meet my rising storage wants. This wasn’t the primary time I spent extra on additional iPhone storage. It seems that, greater than a yr later, 128GB would have sufficed.
Storage is my second-biggest concern when shopping for a brand new iPhone, with battery life taking the highest spot. However the daybreak of AI may repair my storage downside, particularly the type of AI I’m dying to get on the iPhone. Private, on-device AI options is not going to simply require extra RAM — they may even require extra cupboard space.
Analysts count on smartphone distributors to extend the storage on upcoming Android telephones, with Samsung reportedly creating a brand new model of UFS 4.0 optimized for AI. If the storage necessities for AI are as appreciable because the consultants consider, Apple might need no selection however to bump up the storage on iPhone 16 fashions subsequent yr.
The Galaxy S24 is extensively anticipated to be Samsung’s first AI Cellphone. Samsung has already unveiled its ChatGPT rival, Gauss. And it demoed an AI name translation function that may probably be accessible to Galaxy S24 buyers subsequent yr.
The AI Stay Translate Name function will occur on-device, which means information gained’t go away the system. That’s a key facet of delivering private AI experiences. They should be non-public, and meaning processing information regionally.
A number of days in the past, a report mentioned smartphones will want at the least 12GB of RAM to course of on-device AI options. Analysts assume AI assistant options would require 20GB of RAM. That made me surprise whether Apple will boost the RAM on iPhone 16 models subsequent yr. Weeks earlier than that, I highlighted a brand new pattern amongst Android distributors for 2024: telephones rocking 24GB of RAM.
Quick-forward to late November, and Omdia’s Senior Researcher Yeon Seung-hoon (via Revegnus) believes that AI smartphones will want extra storage:
Subsequent yr, with the mixing of AI options in smartphones, there might be progress alternatives for storage. To drive AI operations, together with studying and inference, greater than 15% of the full smartphone storage should be utilized.
To get again to my 256GB iPhone 14 Professional, 15% of reminiscence would quantity to roughly 40GB. It’s not quite a bit, nevertheless it’s not somewhat ether. It’d be about 20GB on an iPhone with 128GB of storage.
All iPhone 15 fashions begin at 128GB of storage, apart from the iPhone 15 Professional Max. The most costly new iPhone will get 256GB at the least. Curiously, experiences analyzing the bill of materials for the iPhone 15 Pro Max indicated the 256GB storage bump wasn’t that costly for Apple this yr.
Many Android distributors have moved to 256GB of storage on their least expensive fashions. Mid-range Android handsets begin at 128GB.
Additionally, Android distributors have been the primary to bump the storage on their units, with Apple needing years to ditch the earlier 64GB default. It’s too early to inform whether or not Apple will make 256GB the brand new storage minimal for iPhone 16 fashions and later.
However, in contrast to many Android distributors, Apple sells iPhones that go as much as 1TB in storage. There have been experiences of Apple transferring to 2TB for the iPhone 15 collection, however that hasn’t occurred.
I’ll additionally level out the obvious factor right here. On-device private AI could be the type of smartphone expertise that distributors will need to monetize.
I can see a future the place you’d get to decide on between cloud-only AI and private AI that works in your system for many issues. The latter may require extra RAM and storage, and firms like Samsung and Apple may improve the costs of these AI telephones that assist on-device AI.
I already mentioned I’m prepared to purchase the costliest iPhone 16 Professional Max mannequin if that’s what will get me Apple GPT, so I’m prepared for that. However I’m solely speculating right here.
It’s too early to say what’s going to occur subsequent, however the Galaxy S24 will quickly present us what kind of {hardware} Samsung wants for on-device AI. We’ll see how a lot RAM the Galaxy S24 telephones rock and whether or not they’ll get bumps in storage. The Galaxy S23 Plus and Extremely already begin at 256GB. It could be wild to see them begin on the subsequent potential possibility, which is 512GB of flash reminiscence.
Additionally, this rumored UFS 4.0 storage will inform us concerning the type of storage velocity that on-device AI would require. Whether or not Apple bumps the storage on iPhone 16 telephones or not, I’m not apprehensive concerning the velocity of the flash reminiscence. That’s by no means been an issue for the iPhone.
Talking about monetizing AI options, Samsung might need one other curiosity in optimizing UFS storage for AI, and that’s to spice up gross sales for its semiconductor division. Different distributors will need UFS 4.0 chips in the event that they plan on including AI options to their 2024 flagships. Most of them in all probability need to get on the AI hype prepare.
