Apple might be working on new devices that support 128GB of internal
storage. The latest beta of iOS 6.1, which was seeded to developers on
Saturday, features a new 128GB system partition key. The change was
first reported by
iDownloadBlog, which, following a tweet by hacker and
developer,
Neal, investigated the development by extracting iOS 6.1
beta and comparing the SystemPartitionPadding values with that of the
older 6 firmware. The blog found that iOS 6.1 featured a new 128 field,
which was not present in iOS 6.
While this doesn't confirm the
presence or development of new devices, it's worth noting that the
maximum storage option that Apple currently offers for iOS devices
including the iPhone and the iPad is 64GB. With the average app size
increasing (especially after the launch of the Retina display iPad),
apps are taking up a large part of storage space, which implies that
space for user data is shrinking. So it makes sense for Apple to
introduce devices with increased storage space.
Earlier this
month, it was also reported that developers are seeing presence of new
iPhone hardware and iOS 7 in their usage logs. The report had claimed
that developers were seeing a new 'iPhone6,1' identifier, powered by a
device running iOS 7, in their app logs, with the app requests
originating from an IP address leading to Apple's Cupertino campus. It
would be interesting to see whether Apple will launch new storage
options for current devices or would keep it for devices introduced in
the next refresh cycle.
(Image Courtesy: iDownloadBlog)