Kuo Ming-chi predicted that the iPhone 18 series may have chip tiering, with not all models adopting TSMC's 2nm technology.
1min read Apple (AAPL.US) has just released its latest smartphone, the iPhone 16, but the industry's focus has quickly shifted to future product lines. One analyst has already started predicting that the iPhone 18 series may see a greater differentiation between models due to cost issues. In a recent article by Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at TTF International, he predicted that the 2026 iPhone 18 series would be manufactured using a processor made with TSMC's (TSM.US) 2nm technology. However, he noted that not all iPhone 18 models would be equipped with this advanced 2nm processor due to cost considerations.Kuo also mentioned that the iPhone 17 series would be manufactured using TSMC's 2nm technology. As chip manufacturing processes continue to advance, yield - the number of qualified chips that can meet market demand - has become increasingly important in product decisions. He expects that the high cost of the 2nm process may lead to a further widening of the performance gap between the iPhone 18 Pro and the standard iPhone 18.Currently, the iPhone 16 series is equipped with the A18 chip, manufactured using a 3nm process, which features a 6-core CPU and a 5-core GPU. The high-end iPhone 16 Pro, on the other hand, is equipped with the more advanced A18 Pro chip, which features a 16-core neural engine capable of performing 35 trillion operations per second, along with a 6-core GPU that offers superior light tracing performance for AAA games.