Android and iOS App Sizes on the Rise

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freggo

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Seems like obesity is slowly becoming a problem on the net too :)
No wonder; 'apps' always strike me as the fast food of software.


 

edlivian

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at least android has allowed the ability for incremental updates, so when apps have updates devs have the ability to just post the patch for the update instead of the whole file. This will not help devices with limited storage, but it will help lower your data plan usage.
 

icepick314

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another reason why Apple should have some kind of external storage option on their iDevices...

what's up with ONLY having 16 or 32 GB when you can add upto 64GB microSD cards on a whim with Android devices?
 

olaf

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most Android devices are coming with just 32gb micro SD support in there specs, anything above is a roll of a dice. bright side of all this is that you will follow trough and actually finish a game.
 

jakjawagon

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This is where most Android phones have the advantage of the memory card slot (though even with that benefit, I still filled up the 8GB internal storage on my previous phone pretty quickly)
 

epobirs

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[citation][nom]olaf[/nom]most Android devices are coming with just 32gb micro SD support in there specs, anything above is a roll of a dice. bright side of all this is that you will follow trough and actually finish a game.[/citation]

A lot more devices have the capability of supporting SDXC than list it on their spec sheet. Generally, any hardware designed after 2009 should have it. The bigger issue is whether the support is there for the disk format needed. Microsoft doesn't support FAT-32 volumes over 32 GB in Windows for a reason but they've introduced exFAT, which will work with SDXC to allow cards up to 2 TB if the chips should become available.

The licensing terms are pretty reasonable for those not insistent on Free OSS everywhere. It's pretty much a given that Windows Phone and Windows RT will have exFAT built-in and handle whatever size cards appear in the next few years.

For myself, the first thing I did when I got the Galaxy SII in February was add a 32 GB Class 10 microSD card. I've barely put anything on it but it was inexpensive and I could. I'd rather have low cost underused capacity than run out on short notice.
 

slickflier

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unfortunately (speaking about the galaxy s3) my s3, 16 gig on droid 4.0.4, with 32 gig class 10 mem card doesn't support apps storage at all on the mem card. The apps HAVE to be stored in the 16 gig internal memory. Actually more like 12 gigs after the os hogs 2 of it. Thus the discussion of apps storage on memory cards is kind of moot point.
 

epobirs

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[citation][nom]slickflier[/nom]unfortunately (speaking about the galaxy s3) my s3, 16 gig on droid 4.0.4, with 32 gig class 10 mem card doesn't support apps storage at all on the mem card. The apps HAVE to be stored in the 16 gig internal memory. Actually more like 12 gigs after the os hogs 2 of it. Thus the discussion of apps storage on memory cards is kind of moot point.[/citation]

Consider where those apps store their data. Do you keep and you audio or video files on your phone? Save games? Documents? It all adds up and having an external storage medium to preserve the base storage for apps helps avoid hitting that wall.

Eventually I expect we'll see something like the support for USB drives on the Xbox 360. Microsoft did away with the proprietary memory units and instead supports encrypted volumes up to 16 GB on a USB drive. The encryption lets them feel safe having the drive used for app storage. Nintendo has gone through a similar policy change with the 3DS and SD cards, now that they're getting serious about download sales.

Partitioning a microSD card so one volume is encrypted and used for additional app space while the rest is fully readable shouldn't be especially difficult to implement. The hardest part is getting users who aren;t familiar with the concepts to understand.
 

jn77

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I will not use a mobile cloud. My SG3 has 32gb of internal memory and 64gb in the Card Slot. XFAT will allow me to have up too 2TB in my microdshcxc card. I am waiting for the 128 and 256gb versions of the sandisk cards now.

In 5 years there will be a new standard to allow more than 2TB on microsdhcxc cards and I will be adopting that standard then.
 

jn77

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[citation][nom]freggo[/nom]Seems like obesity is slowly becoming a problem on the net too :)No wonder; 'apps' always strike me as the fast food of software.[/citation]


I do agree with that, they are putting more bloatware in apps these days.
 

jn77

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[citation][nom]slickflier[/nom]unfortunately (speaking about the galaxy s3) my s3, 16 gig on droid 4.0.4, with 32 gig class 10 mem card doesn't support apps storage at all on the mem card. The apps HAVE to be stored in the 16 gig internal memory. Actually more like 12 gigs after the os hogs 2 of it. Thus the discussion of apps storage on memory cards is kind of moot point.[/citation]


Not sure what you are doing wrong, any app that allows me to move it to the card slot I do. I have about 250 apps on my GS3 and most are not installed on the internal memory.
 

slickflier

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If you can store the apps on your S3 SD card that doesn't involve butchering... ooops i mean rooting the phone. I like to know. Under settings>Applications manager>click a listed app, the button for moving the app to the sd card is missing for me. It's just a blank space right next to the "Clear data" button. I have seen this move to sd card button on my in laws galaxy note. Mind you i do not know the hardware model number nor the os version. So yes I know it can be done. Are you on an SGH-I747m with droid 4.0.4?
 

kryzzay

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Hey you're on to something there slickflier. I can't seem to move anything to SD either. Never thought about it really until now. I've got a I-9300 international model. Time to find out what's up with this......
 

kryzzay

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Yep no G3 has the ability to move apps to SD by default.

Only way to get around it is to root and use the app directory bind.

The only issue with that is the game/app you move to the ext SD will perform a lot slower.
 

slickflier

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Btcstoree11 whats up with the shameless promotional plug? U selling p*nis enlargement pills again? Come on man take it somehwere else.
 

epobirs

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[citation][nom]kryzzay[/nom]Yep no G3 has the ability to move apps to SD by default. Only way to get around it is to root and use the app directory bind. The only issue with that is the game/app you move to the ext SD will perform a lot slower.[/citation]

That is another problem SDXC fixes. It allows for much greater speed, more like that found in SSD units in a PC. You may have noticed a new rating system carried by SCXC cards, UHS. (Ultra High Speed) UHS-II allows for transfer rates up to 314 MB per second. UHS-III is expected to be defined within the next two years, although UHS-II product aren't shipping yet, AFAIK.

Once the capacity of the average phone is perceived as limiting software sales, expect to see updates to Android that offer more freedom to locate apps. (Likely using encrypted partitions as I described above.) Manufacturers and carriers will want to keep the native capacity low to allow low prices to be advertised at time of sale, leaving it up to the consumer to add capacity as needed.

Apple is the rare exception in offering multiple capacities per iPhone model but as there are no expansion slots the consumer is forced to make a final decision up front rather than starting off with what is both adequate and affordable and adding more storage later as the need arises.
 
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