Apple may have made its first mistake with the iPhone 13 New information posted about the rumored specs of the next iPhone suggests that one of the biggest shortcomings of Apple's devices has not been addressed in this update

That would be the storage Apple is including in the standard iPhone and mini models iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max have a generous 128GB of storage, while iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini do not Instead, the base model comes with 64GB, and the only way to add more is to opt for the more expensive 128GB version, as Apple does not include a microSD slot in its smartphones

Earlier this summer, there was some hope that Apple might join other flagship phone makers and increase the capacity of its two least expensive iPhones However, details of the iPhone 13's color and storage configurations on a Ukrainian e-commerce site refuted that iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini are listed in 64GB and 128GB storage options

Now, there is an old adage in technology reporting: just because something is posted early on a Ukrainian e-commerce site does not mean it is true There is no guarantee that the information on KTC's website is accurate Apple could announce a 128GB base model iPhone 13 at their September 14 product event and I might end up with egg on my face Frankly, I hope so [because I would much rather be embarrassed by a premature rant about smartphone storage than face a world where major handset makers are convinced that 64GB is still acceptable as base storage for their flagship phones

Assuming that the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini are priced at $799 and $699, respectively, the same as the previous model, it seems that other phones in this price range have gotten the memo about how much storage cell phone users need these days: $799 Samsung Galaxy S21 has 128GB of storage, as does the $729 OnePlus 9 Even the Galaxy S20 FE, released last year, has 128GB of storage, though it has fewer features to keep the price down

Even these days, when companies like Apple are pushing people to cloud-based storage services like iCloud, 64 GB of storage is too little, starting with the fact that 64 GB is not a full 64 GB, and the software that operates the phone is a small chunk to begin with and the software that operates the phone takes up the space for photos, music, files, and apps, which fills up quickly I currently use my iPhone 11 Pro Max for most of my daily tasks and live a pretty spartan life when it comes to files, but I still had to use the app offload feature to free up space for some updates

Apple would have plenty of reasons to start the storage options at 64GB; the fact that we are talking about the two least expensive flagship options in the iPhone lineup suggests that it probably has something to do with keeping costs down The fact that the two flagship options are the least expensive in the iPhone lineup suggests that it probably has to do with keeping costs down Or perhaps Apple is trying to further differentiate the Pro model from the standard and mini versions

I'm not going to pretend to know what Apple is thinking here But we do know that storage is one area where Apple's competitors are not cutting corners And that makes the iPhone stand out in a different way

The iPhone 13 Pro model is rumored to have many eye-catching features, from a faster refresh display to an improved ultra-wide angle lens In other words, enough features are already available to distinguish the iPhone 13 Pro from newer, less expensive iPhones There is no need to include storage in that category