Apple reportedly mass-produces up to 100 million units of A18 chipset as it anticipates high demand for iPhone 16 series due to generative AI and other upgrades

The iPhone 16 range is expected to launch in September. Aside from the usual screen, camera, and other hardware upgrades, generative AI features will likely be part of the announcements, with Apple Intelligence playing a huge role in all of this. In short, the upcoming models are expected to be in high demand, which is why Apple is reportedly mass-producing up to 100 million A18 chipsets, which will power all four handsets.

A18 and A18 Pro will debut later this year, with Apple likely introducing some spec differences to help boost stock of its iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max.

While notable analysts like Ming-Chi Kuo predict that the iPhone 16 family will lack compelling features, leading to lower shipments, China Times reports that Apple’s estimated sales for the new lineup this year are between 90 million and 100 million units. This effectively means that the tech giant’s foundry partner, TSMC, is reportedly supplying the company with up to 100 million A18 units, but before we forget, we should remind readers that the company has two chipsets set to be unveiled later this year. The A18 is expected to be found in the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus.

As for the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, Apple’s top-of-the-line models will likely get the A18 Pro, which could offer slightly better performance than the base version. Like the M4 powering the latest 11-inch and 13-inch OLED iPad Pro models, Apple could leverage TSMC’s 3nm “N3E” process to bring even better power efficiency and performance to the tablet compared to the “N3B” node. An earlier rumor claimed that the A18 would feature a more powerful Neural Engine than the M4’s unit, leading to improved generative AI capabilities.

The only hardware aspect holding the iPhone 16 series back might be the lack of RAM, as all four models are said to get 8GB, which is not enough to run generative AI functions entirely on-device. The A18 and A18 Pro could also feature larger die sizes to accommodate an improved Neural Engine and increased cache, but the 6-core GPU configuration could remain unchanged from the A17 Pro, which could limit graphics performance.

The report doesn’t mention which iPhone 16 model was ordered in higher volume, but we expect to see the breakdown in the coming months while also analyzing what the A18 series is capable of, so stay tuned for more updates.

Source of information: China Times