Apple's new discovery will be a game-changer

Apple does not share any details regarding the amount of RAM in its iPhone models in press events, press releases, or marketing materials. This is actually an important specification for a computing device, especially one as powerful as this. One of the most significant reasons for this may be that Apple is still hesitant to disclose the amount of RAM in iPhones because it could make the company appear to be in a worse position compared to its competitors. The iPhone 15 Pro has 8 GB of RAM, which pales in comparison to Android devices that feature 12 GB, 16 GB, or even 24 GB of memory. The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus contain 6 GB of RAM.

Apple continues to send the message that RAM is not important for iOS and that the iPhone can beat its competitors when it comes to performance, and we can say that this is true. Many iPhone owners can easily say that they have never felt a lack of RAM on their phones. However, given the latest artificial intelligence breakthrough, there are quite a few people expecting a major RAM upgrade in the iPhone 16.

However, since Apple GPT is expected to offer on-device features and estimates have indicated that private, on-device, generative AI assistants would require anywhere between 12 GB and 20 GB of RAM, whether the iPhone 16 series will have more RAM has become an important question.

Reports state that on-device image generation, in particular, will require 12 GB of RAM, while digital AI assistants might even need 20 GB of memory. There are also experts who say that on-device AI will require a significant portion of the smartphone's storage space to be used. According to them, approximately 15% of the storage space could be reserved solely for AI.

Apple may have found the solution

By the middle of December, Apple researchers detailed a groundbreaking AI discovery in a research paper. They reported that they had found technologies that would allow LLMs, or large language models, to run on mobile devices with limited resources. This development could be an exciting detail not just for the iPhone 16, but for all iPhone models.

The researchers found ways to utilize the phone's flash memory (i.e., storage space) instead of RAM to run services like ChatGPT. This means that after Apple GPT is released via iOS 18, it may not be a feature exclusive only to the iPhone 16.

According to the news reported in Chip, Apple could instead enable AI to run on older devices, including the iPhone 15 and iPhone 14 series. The newest iPhone 15 models have 6 GB of RAM. For comparison, the Galaxy S24 appears to have 8 GB or 12 GB of RAM, depending on the model. The Galaxy S24 will be Samsung's first phone to feature on-device AI capabilities.

This achievement by Apple could also be used on many other devices, including iPads and Macs that contain more RAM, in addition to iPhones already in use.

Furthermore, this development also means that Apple does not have to add more RAM to the phone for the new technology. The company wants to use the phone's fast flash memory to compensate for the difference. Apple's technology could allow the iPhone to run AI models that require up to twice the amount of the iPhone's physical memory. Therefore, if a major RAM upgrade does not come to the iPhone 16 next year, it is possible that a storage upgrade will be made instead.