Report: Apple has increased orders for the A18 chip, with iPhone 16 sales expected to reach 100 million units

Author: Li Xiaoyin

Source: Hard AI

Apple adds A18 chip, full of confidence in the sales of iPhone 16 in the second half of the year.

According to sources from the supply chain quoted by the media, Apple has increased the outsourcing orders for A18 chips. Based on the increased number of orders, the media speculates that Apple's sales expectations for the iPhone 16 series are between 90-100 million units, higher than the sales of the iPhone 15.

Reports indicate that the base models of iPhone 16 (16 and 16 Plus) will use the A18 processor, continuing the design of the A17 Pro, but will switch to TSMC's second-generation 3-nanometer N3E chip; the iPhone 16 Pro will use a completely new design A18 Pro processor, which is 15%-20% larger than the A18 to accommodate more computing units.

At the WWDC conference on June 11th, Apple officially launched the personal intelligent system Apple Intelligence, stating that it will be deeply integrated into the new generation of systems such as iOS 18. This means that iPhones from the iPhone 16 series pre-installed with iOS 18 will bring new AI features at the autumn conference, which is expected to attract many users to upgrade their phones and boost the weak iPhone sales so far this year.

Analysts also point out that with the increase in AI processing data volume, memory must be fully upgraded. The iPhone 16 series will come with 8GB of memory as standard, meaning that in the future, to enjoy Apple's AI features, you must upgrade your phone.

As iPhone officially transitions to AI, what is the future potential?

Morgan Stanley analyst Samik Chatterjee previously stated that the AI upgrade cycle is more likely to follow a "staggered climbing" pattern every two years. It is expected that during these two years of the AI upgrade cycle, Apple's sales focus in the first year will be in North America, with sufficient time to address regulatory issues in the EU market; the focus in the second year will be on Europe and China.

Chatterjee predicts that in the AI upgrade cycle, iPhone sales will increase by 22 million units in the first year, and then increase by another 24 million units in the second year, with North America, China, and the Asia-Pacific region being the main markets contributing to iPhone sales.