Without exaggeration, domestic phone makers have always regarded Apple as their competitor. During product launches, they often take aim at Apple and make comparisons to Apple, with references to Apple's products.

However, Apple has never viewed domestic phone makers as competitors. In Apple's eyes, there is only itself. During each product launch, Apple compares its latest products to its previous ones, highlighting improvements and advancements compared to the previous generation. This is the norm at Apple product launches.

For example, during the iPhone 16 launch event, when discussing its A18 chip, Apple compared the iPhone 16 to the iPhone 15, iPhone 14, iPhone 13, and iPhone 12.

The chip performance improved by 30%, 50%, 50%, and 60% respectively, which seems impressive.

The same approach was taken when discussing the GPU. Apple compared the iPhone 16's GPU to those of the iPhone 15, iPhone 14, iPhone 13, and iPhone 12.

The GPU performance improved by 40%, 50%, 70%, and 100% respectively, which also seems impressive.

However, observant viewers may have noticed Apple's subtle strategy: it only compared the A18 chip to the A16, which was released two years ago and is a 5nm chip.

Last year, Apple also released the A17 Pro, a 3nm chip. Instead of comparing the A18 to this more advanced chip, Apple chose to compare it to the A16 and even earlier chips.

The reason is that the A18 may not necessarily outperform last year's A17 Pro, which is why Apple avoided making such a comparison.

According to user benchmarks on GeeekBench 6, the iPhone 16 with the A18 chip scored 3114 in single-core and 6666 in multi-core tests.

In comparison, the iPhone 15 Pro with the A17 Pro chip scored around 3100 in single-core and 7238 in multi-core tests, indicating that the iPhone 15 Pro outperforms the iPhone 16 overall.

Regarding the GPU, the A18 features a 5-core GPU, while the A17 Pro boasts a 6-core GPU, which is inherently more powerful. Therefore, the A17 Pro generally outperforms the A18.

Before the launch, many people speculated that the standard version of the iPhone 16 might use the A17 Pro chip, while the Pro models would feature the A18 Pro.

However, it now appears that Apple chose to develop a separate A18 chip and A18 Pro chip instead of using the A17 Pro in the iPhone 16. I believe this decision was driven by cost considerations.

Presumably, the A18 chip costs less to produce than the A17 Pro. Given that the A17 Pro bears the "Pro" designation, Apple's decision to forgo its use in favor of the A18 may have been motivated by the pursuit of higher profits. What do you think?