The iPhone has a strange destiny: the more it costs, the more it sells. It may seem contrary to any rule of the economy, marketing and even common sense, but years of history of the Apple smartphone show that high-end models are always preferred to cheaper ones. From the 5C up to the 13 mini, there seems to be no room for an entry level iPhone, with the one exception – perhaps the SE.
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On the other hand, as Apple CEO Tim Cook himself said in the press conference on the sidelines of the last quarterly report, “the iPhone has become such an integral part of people’s lives that they are willing to spend more to get the best they can afford in this category”.
So the anticipation of Mark Gurman, published in his usual Sunday newsletter Power On, does not seem entirely farfetched: in Cupertino they are working on an iPhone Ultra, even more expensive than the Pro Max. The device could arrive in 2024 with the iPhone 16 lineup. Last September, Gurman – who is one of Apple’s most respected strategists – predicted that an “Ultra” model could replace the Pro Max with this year’s iPhone 15, but now he suggests that Apple may market an even more powerful and more expensive iPhone. The catalog could therefore include 5 new devices: two normal, in two sizes, two Pro and one Ultra, which would have a higher price than the iPhone 14 Pro Max (which today starts at 1,489 euros).
While it’s not yet clear what features an “Ultra” device might have, Gurman speculates that it “will likely offer more camera improvements, a faster chip, and possibly an even bigger display.” It could also have a totally portless design (not even the USB-C coming this year), probably in titanium, and even greater memory cuts, with a minimum of 256 GB. In all likelihood, however, it will remain rather similar to the other models, and will not be a foldable: in fact, it seems that Apple is not currently working on foldable smartphones.
Apple has often used the name “ultra”, both for the chips it produces (the M1 Ultra of the Mac Studio), and for the Apple Watch released last year. The Apple Watch Ultra offers an even larger display, a titanium body with a different design from other models and some special features, such as improved resistance capacity in the dive, a powerful alarm and a user-configurable Action Button. Recently, Samsung also launched the Galaxy S23 smartphone family, and the top model, like last year, is called “Ultra”.
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