iPhone 13 Pro Do Have 1TB Variant And LiDAR, Supply Chain Claims

Thursday, 22 July 2021 at 07:14

In June, some analysts at Wedbush were saying that all upcoming iPhone 13 models will come with LiDAR. Moreover, they were claiming that the Pro variant will have a 1TB option. But later, other analysts at TrendForce declined this, saying the LiDAR will be available only on the two Pro models and their storage will be 512GB maximum. They said, "For those who were expecting a 1TB option of storage, TrendForce says Apple is expected to maintain the same memory capacities as the iPhone 12 line." But now, it seems Wedbush analysts’ predictions are true. GSMArena thinks the lower storage options (128 GB and 256 GB) will be doubled too.

From a spec perspective, we have increased confidence that iPhone 13 will have a 1 terabyte storage option. It is double from the highest Pro storage capacity today (512GB). And it will also include a number of enhancements with Lidar across all iPhone 13 models.

Will This Help Apple To Sell More iPhone 13 Handsets?

If these predictions are true, Apple may improve sales even further. Though analysts don’t say anything related to this, the iPhone 13 sales should outrun that of the iPhone 12. Say, the supply chain is targeting 90-100 million units. This is slightly more that 80 million for the current models. Thus, Apple may ship 15% more models next year.

We believe based on our recent Asia supply chain checks that iPhone 13 demand will be similar/slightly stronger than iPhone 12 out of the gates which speaks to our thesis that this elongated “supercycle” will continue for Cupertino well into 2022 […]

Asia supply chain builds for iPhone 13 are currently in the ~90 million/100 million unit range compared to our initial iPhone 12 reads at 80 million units (pre-COVID) and represents a ~15% increase YoY out of the gates.

While this number will clearly move around over the coming months (chip shortage volatility adds to it), we believe this speaks to an increased confidence with Cook & Co. that this 5G driven product cycle will extend well into 2022 and should also benefit from a post vaccine consumer “reopening environment”.

We understand that targets may and will change in accordance to the chip shortage problem. But Apple has experience of squeezing its suppliers. So maybe the Cupertino company will suffer less.

Wedbush also claims Apple will return to the traditional late-September iPhone launch timing.

This positive outlook gives us enhanced confidence that 2021’s launch timing will be normal. From a timing perspective, we believe the current iPhone 13 launch is slated for the third week in September.