iCave - David Eden-Sangwell
0:00 I’m iCave Dave, and in today’s Apple Daily:
0:56 iPhone 12 range costs up to 26% more to produce than the 11 range
2:09 March iMac focused Event on March 26th
3:28 Ming Chi Kuo says 14&16” MacBook Pros to arrive Late Q2, early Q3, maybe WWDC?
Thanks Siri – And today is the first day that Apple says I could be getting my Mac mini M1 – though apparently it hasn’t shipped yet. Exciting times very soon and it should be here by the 15th. So stay tuned and if there’s anything you want me to test with it (games will come) let me know.
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iPhone 12 range costs up to 26% more to produce than the 11 range
According to a report from Counterpoint via Patently Apple, iPhone 12’s bill of materials has increased quite a bit over the iPhone 11 – and the cost increases are actually spread over more areas of the phone than you might realise.
The big news on iPhone 12 when it was pre-release was that 5G contributed a lot to the cost of the device, and based on this report the 5G antennas and modem cost $34 more than the previous year, though the US only millimetre wave variant costs $27 more than the international version. The switch to OLED across the range adding $23 per unit over the 11’s LCD panels too, which brought more dynamic range and peak brightness to the devices.
While these costs will likely drop slightly through the production runs as everything settles in, and in the coming years as the existing lines for this design are used more. The current form factor and display sizes are expected to remain for at least next year, and most likely 2022, though LTPO displays with variable refresh rates are expected in the Pro and Pro Max this year, with these panels reaching all iPhones in 2022.
March iMac focused Event
Reports that Apple will hold a March event introducing new iMacs, AirTags and a MiniLED iPad Pro at a March 23rd event, which would presumably take a digital format.
This comes via a tweet from iAppleTimes. The latest tweet mentions iMac Air and iMac Pro (ARM) and introducing a Regular HomePod, updated to Apple A10, but points out that the source is new and not yet verified.
That being said, I do find the idea of iMac Air and iMac Pro being the names of the product lines interesting, and I think these could just be the two sizes, though it would also suggest potentially different design language and processor power, at leas you would expect that, though the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro right now have identical silicon inside, with other features dictating the separation like the design, Touch Bar and display brightness.
I have a couple of concerns – the additional tweet from the poster mentions AirPods Studio, which we now know as AirPods Max on their March list too, and there’s no mention of the 9th Gen iPad we’ve also heard about. Right now the HomePod runs an A8 SOC which is pretty old but I’d have thought something closer to the S5 in the HomePod mini would be more likely, assuming it has the power needed, or even the H1 as found in the new AirPods Max.
Ming Chi Kuo says 14&16” MacBook Pros to arrive Late Q2, early Q3, maybe WWDC?
Now, this is a much less… happy rumour as I was pretty convinced we’d see a 16” MacBook Pro with M1X in March, especially as a Bloomberg report before the first Apple Silicon Macs arrived did mention that a 16” version was already in production.
That said, the delay could be with the miniLED displays, which feature around 10,000 local dimming zones with individual LEDs lighting screen areas rather than a full backlight LED panel where the whole display is lit with the LCD blocking light where it needs to.
Beyond the new displays, Apple is expected, as with the iMac range to include a new design language more inline with iPad Pro, including rounded display corners, smaller bezels and flat slab sides. Hopefully this would also allow deeper camera sensors, possibly FaceID and more to be added to these new MacBooks. And of course, the biggest change, regardless of how these MacBooks look will be the addition of M1X, the presumed name of the SOC, so if the report is true that they won’t be released until WWDC in June, then they should be worth the wait.
So as always, thank you for watching and if you want me to answer any of your Apple questions, please ask in the comments using #iCaveAnswers and I’ll answer them for you in the show! .