Apple just announced its latest iPhones — the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.
As many predicted before the event, each phone will be offered in three storage configurations: 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB.
Even though it may be tempting to buy the 16GB version, which is least expensive model — it starts at $199 on contract — don't do it.
An iPhone with 16GB is pretty much worthless because it doesn't provide enough storage in this day and age.
An individual photo taken with the phone uses more than a megabyte, a minute of video takes up more than 100 megabytes, and operating systems can take up more than a gigabyte.
Apps have also gotten huge. Instagram and Google Maps each take up more than 250MB on my phone, and Google Photos, which is the best way to back up photos, takes up more than a gigabyte.
Many people who use iMessage have gigabytes worth of messages on their phones.
Related story
If you buy the 16GB version of the phone, it's likely you'll soon see messages alerting you that your phone's storage is full, and you need to delete files to add an app or take another photo.
(Two colleagues of mine with 16GB iPhone 6's are constantly running out of space. One even called her purchase of the 16GB iPhone 6, hyperbolically, of course, the "biggest regret" of her life.)
Apple upset a lot of people last year when it announced this same storage lineup for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. It doubled the storage on its mid- and high-level tiers, giving people twice the storage for the same amount of money. But it left the entry level tier the same.
This was largely seen as a ploy to get people to spend $100 more on an iPhone to get that mid-level one rather than that entry-level one. And it was a hugely successful ploy.
In other words, a 16GB iPhone is terrible for consumers, but great for Apple investors.
Last year, right after Apple announced the new phones, prominent Apple blogger John Gruber called the company's decision to offer a 16GB version of the phone "the single-most disappointing aspect of the new phones."
Phil Schiller, Apple's marketing boss, defended the storage configuration earlier this year, saying it's a good budget-conscious option and with all of the cloud storage solutions available today, it's a realistic option for many consumers.
But that argument is bunk. Don't buy the 16GB iPhone 6s or 6s Plus.
