Why do Android phones have limited memory?

[JavaWizKid]

Why does HTC make Android phones with very limited memory? Why not be like the iPhone and make it internal? There has been news that the G1 cannot receive updates because of lack of space. If it had internal memory of decent size this wouldn't be a problem. Forget SD cards, use internal.

 

[DanGrover]

Why does HTC make Android phones with very limited memory? Why not be like the iPhone and make it internal? There has been news that the G1 cannot receive updates because of lack of space. If it had internal memory of decent size this wouldn't be a problem. Forget SD cards, use internal.

The problem with the G1 and the internal storage are two totally separate issues. The problem is that the ROM image becomes too big to run on the internal RAM of the phone (the G1 has less than all the subsequent Android phones).

 

[JavaWizKid]

So the actual ROM doesn't matter?

 

[hitnfly]

i would like to sue google for tmobile for lack of memory.. i will be stuck with g1 for next 2 years.. maybe im going to smash up the g1 and stop paying to tmobile.. i suggest y'all get x3 or zii for massive internal memory.

 

[Slug]

Why does HTC make Android phones with very limited memory? Why not be like the iPhone and make it internal?

Maybe more RAM for actually running apps, but storage? No thanks. When 64GB microSDHC cards become available a firmware/ROM/whatever update should enable us to use them. No chance of that if all your eggs are in the one (internal) basket.

Besides, if my 16GB card goes tits-up it's less than

 

[punkzanyj]

Maybe more RAM for actually running apps, but storage? No thanks. When 64GB microSDHC cards become available a firmware/ROM/whatever update should enable us to use them. No chance of that if all your eggs are in the one (internal) basket.

Besides, if my 16GB card goes tits-up it's less than

 

[thewhitewizard]

exactly. the phone currently has INTERNAL memory, and that's the problem. Adding more INTERNAL memory won't fix it in the long run, it just delays the problem. The real gold is securing the ability to safely install apps to the SD Card and also use it as cache for apps that can't be moved. You can safely, in your home, remove an SD Card without voiding your warranty, replacing internal memory is another story involving shipping and waiting. No thanks.

i think the real question here is adoptability. i have the Dream and i have resorted to uninstalling apps and replacing them with xx byte sized widgets in order to free up space and allow smooth operation of my phone. iPhone users would laugh at the fact. they download apps with impunity and never have to worry about 'managing' apps. Apps are what drive the phones success, not the specs.

I agree that the long term gold solution is Apps2SD but until that actually becomes a REAL app, and not something that you need to void your warranty by rooting your phone to do, Android will not achieve what it set out to do, namely compete and kill apple. And given the actual cost now of memory and seeing that a very small amount of android phone do give a gig or more of internal memory, (i believe one samsung has 8 gigs internal) the question is why are hardware manufacturers shooting android in the head with this gaffe?

i have sworn off Android at the moment due to the whole fiasco with Rogers up here in Canada. Namely that my Dream will be forever stuck at 1.5 because HTC and Rogers blame each other for not cranking out an update for their customized crap, AND that the phone was designed so poorly that HTC says they couldn't get 2.1 on it even if they tried.

In this day and age, phones with less than 1gig of internal memory should be laughed at and theres no excuse, especially when the success of the breakthrough OS is being touted as the future.

reminds me of the good old days of DOS and the 640k mem limit and all the config.sys tweaks with memory managers to load and unload programs to get programs to run.

ill leave you with this. the more times i search for apps in the market, the bigger the market app becomes. all this resides on internal. if i dont go in and clear the cache from the app manager, soon my phone bogs down to the point where i can actually miss answering a call because the phone lags while its ringing. when a phone cant do its primary function because its internal memory ran out, someones ass should be swinging from the branches i say.

 

[Jaffa]

ill leave you with this. the more times i search for apps in the market, the bigger the market app becomes. all this resides on internal. if i dont go in and clear the cache from the app manager, soon my phone bogs down to the point where i can actually miss answering a call because the phone lags while its ringing. when a phone cant do its primary function because its internal memory ran out, someones ass should be swinging from the branches i say.

Agreed, however, iphone does not have to manage Apps, because it only runs on at a time, its quite a simple process to manage.

1: Load App

2: Select New App

3: Close running App

4: Run App

5: Goto 2

 

[thewhitewizard]

Agreed, however, iphone does not have to manage Apps, because it only runs on at a time, its quite a simple process to manage.

1: Load App

2: Select New App

3: Close running App

4: Run App

5: Goto 2

LOL.. agreed. I sometimes forget that. Precisely my point why i avoided iPhone in the first place.

Still, it's the same reason i nearly threw my old Blackberry 8320 out the window on the highway. I couldn't answer the call because the hourglass showed up on my screen and wouldn't leave through the entire ringing process.

Android is a world class OS. But if the hardware isn't accepted then it wont matter. Beta killed VHS in specs. Amiga ran circles around IBM clones. The rest is history.

Believe me, i want Android to succeed and knock Apple off its damn pedestal. But until it reaches a level of simplicity as the iPhone it wont. Rooting isn't the answer. Should be right out of the box. For every one qualified techhead, there are 300 noobs who couldn't be bothered to attempt something that would brick their very expensive new toys.

 

[jim_h]

Believe me, i want Android to succeed and knock Apple off its damn pedestal. But until it reaches a level of simplicity as the iPhone it wont. Rooting isn't the answer. Should be right out of the box. For every one qualified techhead, there are 300 noobs who couldn't be bothered to attempt something that would brick their very expensive new toys.

I absolutely agree with your posts in this thread!

The Achilles heel of Android is the pathetic amount of memory the likes of the Hero have and that Google have chosen to prevent the external memory being used to install. I understand the security implications, but there are other ways to do it. It just smacks of lazy programming to me (I'm a programmer). Symbian manages apps really nicely and I wish Android would mimic this. You run an installer and it asks you whether you'd like it to be installed on the internal or external memory. Simple and elegant.

The lack of storage space on the Hero didn't bother me to begin with, but I'm a bit fed up of having to watch everything I install because of that artificial restriction now.

I still love my Hero though

 

[bbrosen]

LOL.. agreed. I sometimes forget that. Precisely my point why i avoided iPhone in the first place.

Still, it's the same reason i nearly threw my old Blackberry 8320 out the window on the highway. I couldn't answer the call because the hourglass showed up on my screen and wouldn't leave through the entire ringing process.

Android is a world class OS. But if the hardware isn't accepted then it wont matter. Beta killed VHS in specs. Amiga ran circles around IBM clones. The rest is history.

Believe me, i want Android to succeed and knock Apple off its damn pedestal. But until it reaches a level of simplicity as the iPhone it wont. Rooting isn't the answer. Should be right out of the box. For every one qualified techhead, there are 300 noobs who couldn't be bothered to attempt something that would brick their very expensive new toys.

I have been saying the same thing for weeks here, but because i am new, i get called a troll, but you hit the nail on the head. I was told these "problems" were not really problems in the android world...seems at least a few people agree with me at least. It is great if the os can multitask but if it is allowed to be on hardware that cannot, well, it kills the experience. ie my htc hero.

 

[The_Gnome_]

I have been saying the same thing for weeks here, but because i am new, i get called a troll, but you hit the nail on the head. I was told these "problems" were not really problems in the android world...seems at least a few people agree with me at least. It is great if the os can multitask but if it is allowed to be on hardware that cannot, well, it kills the experience. ie my htc hero.

I haven't had problems/complaints yet with my Hero, sorry to hear that you have.

While I don't agree on the Hero, I agree with your point about Android being ported to lesser hardware. It diminishes what the OS can do, but at the same time, with the open concept of Android and it's development, this is what you will get unfortuantely (especially as manufacturers try to bring phones to the low end of the market and cut costs on hardware).

 

[jim_h]

I think the Hero is more than capable of coping with Android. It's just the way the OS is implemented, not to take advantage of the hardware in the name of some security issues that could be fixed fairly easily.

 

[nx1977]

I'd say if you look closely at the RAM on most handsets out there, there is very little.

All handsets have RAM the phone actually runs on, and a bit extra for cache and some small apps, and usually a separate chip solely for storage (1gb+).

It'd be better if from the box Android allowed apps to be dumped onto the SD card like it does for pics etc I'll agree.

But remember compared to just about every OS out there, Android and apps that run on it are fairly light mem consumption wise.

Just like with PC's. You may need 4gb RAM and 250gb drives to get windows to run decently these days, but 4gb RAM and 250gb drive in a linux machine is pretty overkill.

If you think the X3 is a decent step forward from Nokia, you'll be deeply upset. As a Nokia man of some 14 years solidly, even I can see Android is a much better option out of everything out there or planned upto summer.

 

[Jaffa]

I'd say if you look closely at the RAM on most handsets out there, there is very little.

All handsets have RAM the phone actually runs on, and a bit extra for cache and some small apps, and usually a separate chip solely for storage (1gb+).

It'd be better if from the box Android allowed apps to be dumped onto the SD card like it does for pics etc I'll agree.

But remember compared to just about every OS out there, Android and apps that run on it are fairly light mem consumption wise.

Just like with PC's. You may need 4gb RAM and 250gb drives to get windows to run decently these days, but 4gb RAM and 250gb drive in a linux machine is pretty overkill.

If you think the X3 is a decent step forward from Nokia, you'll be deeply upset. As a Nokia man of some 14 years solidly, even I can see Android is a much better option out of everything out there or planned upto summer.

Qft

 

[JimR123]

Another point of view on this...

Hero actually has an infinite amount of memory available, as you can swap the memory cards out at any time. You can't do that with an iPhone.

Also, I had an 8GB iPhone 3G, and struggled to get anywhere near as much media (music, video, etc) on there as I wanted. I really needed either much larger memory, or swappable memory. To get larger memory, it required I buy an entirely new handset, at 500 quid or so. Turns out the handset I bought had "HTC" written on it

The problem with the memory on the Hero, IMO, is that it's organised poorly. Or, more specifically, as other people have suggested, the ability to store apps on SD instead of internal memory would be a big bonus.

Having said all that, it would always be nice to have more memory, even if it's not used. It's just nice to know you've got it...

Still not going back to iPhone though...