
16GB Is a Bad User Experience - Hansi
https://david-smith.org/blog/2015/09/10/16gb-is-a-bad-user-experience/
======
opk
He bought an iphone 6s as a testing device that would spend most of its life
in a desk drawer! I hope this was a company expense or something? One of those
would be like a weeks wages for me. I can't understand why people pay so much
for smart phones anyway. And if your idiotic phone runs out of memory at the
top of some mountain, "the moment isn't missed forever", the moment gets
missed because you're mucking about with a stupid phone instead of enjoying
the moment with your family.

~~~
madaxe_again
"because you're mucking about with a stupid phone instead of enjoying the
moment with your family."

This, a thousand times over. Was at the beach last week, there was a seal
sunbathing on a rock 50m from shore... Around me I could hear people
complaining they couldn't see it properly - because all weren't looking at it,
rather at the crappy digital zoom on their phones.

I just looked at the fucking thing, these eye things work pretty well. I'd
rather be present and use my meat-based memory than have a "memory" on my
phone of an event I viewed through a glass, darkly.

Also, 16gb 5s here, space I have to think about quarterly, if that.

~~~
icebraining
_I 'd rather be present and use my meat-based memory than have a "memory" on
my phone of an event I viewed through a glass, darkly._

I'm going to blow your mind: you are actually allowed to do both.

~~~
shiven
_... you are actually allowed to do both._

Allowed, yes. Capable, not likely. Multitasking is overrated and actually
counterproductive when writing to the meat-store inside your skull.

~~~
randallsquared
This is why lifelogging is so important. I don't want to have to be distracted
from my life making sure that I preserve memories in a higher-fidelity format
than meat, but I _do_ want to preserve those memories. Further, the ones that
mean the most to me later are almost always spontaneous and unplanned, so a
manually operated camera isn't especially useful for them, anyway.

I want full recording of everything I see and hear at qualities high enough
that I can go back and look at things I missed the first time. I thought
Google Glass was the start of that, but it looks like it's going to be a few
more years.

~~~
flycaliguy
There is no way that the experiences you will have while recording everything
will be the same as without. Unless you think you are going to live forever
and get super bored in 300 years, just live your life and live in the moment.

~~~
icebraining
_There is no way that the experiences you will have while recording everything
will be the same as without._

If the recording is completely passive, _as randallsquared was saying_ , why
not?

~~~
flycaliguy
Because people do not act the same when they are being recorded and when every
statement they make can be reviewed in the future. Unless you are secretly
recording them, don't count on an experience not filled with awkward self
consciousness. You may find that a significant amount of people will not want
you around them, including the staff of any buisness you are in.

If you think this is good, like some sort of pressure to make the public more
accountable for what they say... I would warn that instead of an ethical
wonderland you may find yourself in a panopticon pressure cooker with the
status quo in power.

~~~
randallsquared
In most situations where people are currently recorded constantly, the
recording doesn't seem to produce social awkwardness. Nearly every urban
public or semi-public space is this way; one may argue that cities _are_
pressure cookers, but it's not clear to me that the reason is ubiquitous
recording.

In any case, as the tech to record becomes ever smaller and less obtrusive,
there will ultimately be no way to know whether you are being recorded
digitally. Therefore society and people's reactions will adjust.

~~~
flycaliguy
Yes but there is a key difference between constant recording being spread
across a disconnected sprawl that is only accessible to a police office
willing to drop by the local 711... And a recorded stream made by a person
around you who is able to quickly review and forever archive the content.

I think in the end it will become quite taboo to operate a recording device
with your friends all the time. Maybe it will become okay to turn it on during
a jog through the city or a trip to the fair, but having your recording device
turned on while enjoying a glass of wine with me on my back porch will be a
no-no. Having it own while at the gym? No. Client meeting or anything work
related which could contain company "secrets"? No. Maybe I'm wrong and there
will be a cultural shift in which we all just submit ourselves to this sort of
social survalience, but I find it hard to imagine it happening in any sphere
more interesting than a family trip to the Apple Store.

There is no way that a first date and the potential trip back to my place has
any room for a recording, it's just not a psychological and social fit.

~~~
randallsquared
The thing is, you're _already_ recording those things, just in low fidelity
and with poor searchability. If the tech were coming from the other direction,
as "improved memory" and the ability to download memories to external storage,
how would that change your view on tabooing?

~~~
flycaliguy
I think you are making a weak argument that creating concrete audio/video
recordings has any similarity to the memory of one's mind. There is such a
massive ocean of difference between the filters of perception and distortion
in memory recollection and video recordings, I think you are making the brain
out to be something it isn't.

Nonetheless, this is an interesting debate. Reminds me of an episode of Black
Mirror. Check that out for sure, it basically illustrates what you are saying.
I found the segment in which before boarding an airplane passengers were
required to allow the security to review their memory quite disturbing.
Extrapolate that invasion of privacy in every other direction. Having whatever
cloud or personal drive you record to be potentially hackable or open for
evidence in the courts... It's just some dystopian death of privacy territory
that I can't ever seeing the public embracing. Then again, maybe they will and
if they do I'll be moving myself to whatever state our country is willing to
stand up for privacy and ban such devices.

The basis of my position is the historical record that the most important
ideas and movements towards advancements in human rights have often started
out as illegal, unpopular and challenges to the status quo. The idea that we
can stop crime by recording everything is an illusion and will only serve to
suppress advancements which defy the current rule of law.

~~~
randallsquared
I think you may be arguing against points I'm not making; my argument has
nothing to do with stopping crime, but is about my desire for perfect recall
of everything that ever happens to me. I think we'll get closer and closer to
that, but just audio and video of every waking moment would be a huge jump
toward it.

I've seen Black Mirror, and liked it for the most part. I don't remember that
particular scene, though. Maybe it's time for a rewatch. :)

~~~
flycaliguy
Right on, I hear ya. My fears lie with the implications of having these
recordings exist. I think that they will quickly become more than just a
keepsake as soon as the police decide they can use them to solve crimes. I
think withholding your recordings from any investigation which could be aided
with them will become a crime in itself and yeah... I just have real worries
about the state of affairs regarding surveillance. I'm a bit of a kook about
that stuff though.

------
PhantomGremlin
I ran into this recently. The 16 GB is an outright lie.

First, a bunch is reserved for the OS and similar. The phone might only start
out with 12 GB for the user.

Second, a bunch just "disappears". Attach a phone to iTunes and it claims
perhaps 2 GB free. But view the free space within the phone itself and it
might only show 500 MB free. Huge discrepancies are inevitable, and it doesn't
seem possible to find out how to resolve them.

Third, a large chunk is often taken by Apple with pending iOS updates pushed
to the phone. But then the phone refuses to actually do the update, claiming
there's not enough free storage.

It's a clusterfuck. And there's very little discussion or outrage about it.
Apple should be embarrassed, but they don't give a shit.

~~~
Alphasite_
Honestly, that at least has improved significantly.

------
unabst
First there is Photo Stream which stores backups of your photos _on the same
phone_ \-- even those you delete. Not even sure how it got turned on. Don't
even have another iOS device.

Then being "savvy", I was copying and deleting photos directly through
explorer. Well, this leads to ghost space, which is resolved by setting the
clock back to reveal deleted but unpurged photos in the recycle bin [0]. Wack.

Then found Dropbox Carousel. Victory of the cloud, no more local storage
needs. Except still kept running out of space. Turns out Carousel uses as much
as it can as cache (in my case 4GB). WTF!

So yes, I'd wholeheartedly agree that 16GB is a bad user experience. Users are
basically in constant competition with Apple and other apps for space, and at
16GB the user is constantly losing.

\--

[0]
[https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6560594?start=45&tstart...](https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6560594?start=45&tstart=0)

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jarcane
This would all be trivially solved if Apple would just put a goddamn SD card
slot in it.

Storage size as sole model differentiation is sooo 2001. At this point it
genuinely makes Apple look out of touch in a market where every other flagship
quality model doesn't bother with it and includes an SD slot, partly I suspect
because it's just saner from a production and inventory standpoint even
besides the consumer benefits.

~~~
matthewmacleod
No it wouldn't.

1\. Flagship models don't all include an SD slot. Galaxy S6, Moto X, Nexus 6
for example. It's clearly a common decision.

2\. I doubt that even if they iPhone did include such a slot the problem would
be solved. Removable storage is complicated.

~~~
blisterpeanuts
Yes, I hate that. Sdxc cards are up to 512 gb now, and a terabyte card is
probably not too far off. People are putting 64gb and 128gb chips in their
point-and-shoot cameras. Smartphones are increasingly seeming crippled and
artificially limited by comparison.

~~~
meesterdude
> People are putting 64gb and 128gb chips in their point-and-shoot cameras

That's a really good point! They tote the device as a replacement, but clearly
cripple it in a way that a dedicated device would not be.

------
qopp
Of course 16Gb is an "uncomfortable" user experience. It's supposed to be.

It's about market segmentation.

It's not cost. 32gb memory units in bulk are like $1 maybe. Apple charges an
extra $100 because they are using that easy-to-understand difference to
segment the market and collect an extra $100 profit from those that can afford
that price point.

~~~
humanrebar
You're basically restating the conclusion of the piece.

The author states that this (presumably) intentional choice undermines the
Apple brand that includes quality and uncompromisingly excellent user
experience.

~~~
xlm1717
This has been the state of things since Apple started offering different
storage sizes on their iPhones. The bigger model has always been $100 more
expensive. This is as much a part of the Apple brand as quality and
uncompromisingly excellent user experience.

------
jafingi
I have no problems with 16GB iPhone which I've had since the 3G. Currently I
have 72 apps installed. Syncing with 8 email addresses.

I use Spotify for music, and have an offline playlist with about 2GB songs.
Photos and movies are synced to the cloud, and files older than 1 month are
deleted from the device. I have 3.2GB available.

So while your points may be valid for some, I can manage fine with 16GB. And
it's not like I'm thinking about it, and change my habits to have the 16GB
phone.

~~~
ricw
37% of 16gb iPhone 6 users are unable to deal with it. So good for you being
able to deal with it. A large amount of users can not.

~~~
jafingi
No. 37% has less than 1GB available. It doesn't state anything about them not
being able to deal with it. If I have all the apps and music I need, why
should it be a problem with 800MB available. I can't believe so many infer
that the majority have space issues just because they need 64GB for all their
music stored offline and hours of video-recordings in 1080p themselves.

------
andyfleming
Yeah, it's no good. I have a 16 GB model. I've bought into the iCloud-powered
photos syncing, but yet somehow there is never space on my phone. The whole
point was to automatically move photos to the cloud, yet 9/10 times I open my
camera, it says "Not enough space to take a photo".

~~~
vellum
Check which apps are being space hogs. Go to Settings->General->Usage->Manage
Storage. Some apps like Twitter don't delete their caches. So you have to
delete the app and reinstall it to reclaim the space.

~~~
e28eta
For me, that's the real point. We need developers to care. Apple's come out
with APIs for app thinning, and they've had the right and wrong way to cache
files forever (etc). But, that dev work doesn't increase downloads of your
app, and if no one is looking for compliance, you're better off delivering
other features.

Twitter might not even know they have a problem! iOS Dev team members are
constantly installing new builds of the app.

------
segmondy
As someone who has a 16gb nexus 5 and is writing this post from a 16gb
chromebook that also has a linux installation. Give me a break. 16gb is
storage, has nothing to do with a user experience. Your iphone is not a
camcorder. If recording video is of utmost importance to you, then buy a phone
with massive storage or one that can accept an SD card.

------
fsiefken
Just write a script that would move all the videos and photos off the device
when docked each night or each week. 1G a day for photo's and 3 video's should
be enough for everybody, you don't have the time to rewatch them anyway. Less
is more. Or just get an Android device with a microsd port; 128G is cheap.

~~~
colomon
I do have an Android device with 16G main memory and a 64G SD card. Despite
having plenty of free space on the card, I pretty routinely run out of space
on the 16G. That's because most apps can only install there, and many apps
can't use the SD card for storing their data. Case in point, last week I
discovered I had 2.3G of Audible files. I could find no obvious way of
transferring them over to the free space on the SD card...

------
benevol
Well, surprise. You're part of what those on the right side of the game call
"planned obsolescence". Unfortunately, you're on the wrong side of the game.
Now please stop asking questions and continue consuming.

------
ricw
Very interesting as it entirely contradicts apples recent statements in
interviews that 16gb is fine as a base model (Tim Cook, Phil Schiller and
Jonny Ive stated this if I remember correctly). This is clearly not true if it
means that 17% of their ENTIRE iPhone 6 users is low on memory, or 37% of
their 16gb iPhone 6 users.

It's factual evidence that Apple does indeed play games and tries to maximise
profits and obsolescence of its devices, despite always claiming the opposite.
All because they're unwilling to add a couple of dollars to their bill of
materials.

They should be ashamed.

------
gkanapathy
Apple doesn't keep the base model small to save costs. They do it to increase
revenue (and margins).

The cost to go from 16GB to 32GB is inconsequential. (They upped the step-up
from 32GB to 64GB with no increase in price.) In fact, the cost to them from
16GB to 64GB is probably inconsequential. It's certainly nothing near the $100
in price.

The reason they keep it at 16GB is to make more people upgrade to 64GB. If the
base model was 32GB, far fewer people would upgrade to 64GB, precisely
_because_ you would no longer have an unacceptably bad user experience.

~~~
rwmj
In other words, it's about hating your poorer/cheaper users? Wouldn't it be a
better strategy to do the right thing for the customers, which I guess in this
case would mean having only one model, with a useful amount of storage?

~~~
nkurz
_In other words, it 's about hating your poorer/cheaper users?_

It's not about hate, it's that Apple is a for-profit company whose goal is to
maximize their profit. They've decided that many of those poorer users will
choose to sacrifice something else in their life and give the difference to
Apple.

 _Wouldn 't it be a better strategy to do the right thing for the customers_

Are you suggesting that an approach that better met the needs of their less
well-off users would have increased their profitability? No, almost definitely
not. I don't like Apple, but their current strategy definitely works for them.

Measured by the metric of profit, Apple is inarguably one of the most
successful companies in the history of the world. If so, can you point to any
companies who gotten better results from the "put customers first" strategy
than Apple has has with theirs?

Most likely what you mean is that the world as a whole would be a better place
if Apple pursued some other strategy than profit-maximization. I'd personally
agree with this, but it's also difficult to come up with solid examples.

------
meesterdude
I've been bitten by this too. It's not that I need a lot of space for apps,
but taking pictures or video can fill up the space quite quickly as is; I
can't imagine what it would be like with 4K.

My iPod had 80GB of space. My nikon has a 128GB card in it. These are roles
the iPhone is supposed to play, but it's an imitation at best because the
storage is so hindered.

That and battery life are the two biggest pains I have with my iPhone, but
apple seems to think everything is great as-is in those departments.

------
_ph_
An interesting article which raises a good point: the problem with Apple
products isn't the price, there is a place for good high priced products, but
that some of them are really bad products because of memory limitations. At
16gb you can not use all of its advertised features, unless you rely on
streaming/cloud storage only.

And it is not only the iPhone hit by this. I have a 64g iPad, the biggest
configuration they offered at that time. For years now, its usage has been
limited by the storage filling up. For this reason alone, I will not be buying
this release of the iPad pro. A machine which is supposed to partially replace
a laptop needs 256g at minimum, possibly 512g. Even if such configurations
were more expensive than the currently offered ones, they would still be more
interesting as those which just have no way of getting the desired storage
sizes.

------
stuaxo
It's fine for my atypical usage ... but then I am on Linux and have never
liked itunes so have no music on there, and don't take many pics as am with
someone that doesn't like photos taken.

------
matthewmacleod
I can add to the anecdata that 16GB has not been an issue for me.

Isn't there another obvious spin on the data? It seems obvious that at least
70% of users with 16GB phones are doing fine with that amount of storage.
Wouldn't it be a poor decision—certainly from a business point of view—to
mandate larger storage for them, when they clearly aren't even using 16GB?

~~~
DasIch
70% of all users might not have a problem but the real question is how it
impacts the users that matter, the users that voice their opinion and are
listened to. I would expect that quite a few of them do notice or would, if
they were using 16GB phones.

~~~
matthewmacleod
That makes no sense – those users are free to buy a bigger phone in exchange
for the additional fee. Since a large majority of users do not appear to be
using the full 16GB available, it seems it would be a poor use of resources to
add additional storage for them.

~~~
DasIch
What they are free to do or not is irrelevant, as long as users complain about
the 16GB phones causing negative publicity.

------
cm2187
One can't both consider that one's primary use of the iphone is to record
pictures and videos and at the same time go for the model with the smallest
possible disk size and then complain about the lack of space.

The premium Apple charges for larger disk space is ridiculously uncorrelated
with the cost of the components but the solution to this is better
competition.

~~~
humanrebar
> the solution to this is better competition

There is a _lot_ of competition out there. A lot of great competition. The
problem with this argument is that Apple specifically makes it hard for its
customers to switch ecosystems. So it's still Apple causing the issue.

~~~
cm2187
I haven't seen any user stuck with iphone because they rely on something they
wouldn't get on an android.

The only reason I am myself willing to pay the apple premium is because I am
extremely uncomfortable with google's invasion of android users privacy and
google makes it hard to switch these features off (like "if you don't want
google to upload your GPS locations then turn off the GPS!", etc).

~~~
humanrebar
I've seen many people stick with Apple because they've invested in media from
iTunes that will never play on Android devices, even Chromecasts.

------
derefr
Apple buys their Flash chips, right? With all the advancements in Flash
technology lately, I'm surprised their suppliers aren't offering to just swap
out higher-capacity chips on their orders for the same price in order to keep
a giant customer like Apple on a current, rather than legacy, chip fab.

~~~
adventured
It's intentional on Apple's part. They're trying to hold margins artificially
high by putting increasing pressure on users to spend more money on greater
storage (and to rely on Apple's Internet services more). Except they've jumped
the shark at this point and let the 16gb linger too long. A pretty classic
mistake when you're making the poor business decision of trying to walk a
dental floss width tight rope between margins and pissing off customers, all
over $5 in cost.

------
karmakaze
I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned that folks will take more Live Photos
than extended videos with these phones. How much storage do you need before
the next auto wifi sync? Let it auto-delete old sync'd stuff. The problem is
s/w not h/w.

------
hokkos
The iPhone is supposed to be a high end device with great user satisfaction,
Apple you are ruining it with this policy. User will have a bad taste and
never buy an iPhone again, you are playing a dangerous game here.

------
rocky1138
This would be solved if there was a slot for a micro SD card.

------
cdevs
How do you feel about the Google 16 gig "laptops"?

------
rasz_pl
just plug bigged SD card like normal people do

..oh wait

~~~
_ph_
There are points to be made why a SD card in a phone would be a bad idea -
some of them are low quality and cause data issues (just search camera forums
for card issues), storage management gets more complex etc. This _should_ be a
mood point considering that it does not cost phone manufacturers much to put a
decent amount of memory into their devices. But that they offer neither a card
slot nor decent amounts of memory, is the issue.

------
ashitlerferad
Can't you just add a SD cart to it?

------
bakabaka9
Bad user experience depends on the user. Personally I very much enjoy the
somewhat lower price of less-beefy models of smartphones and tablets — as I'm
not obsessed with taking pictures, don't play blockbuster video games on
mobile, and prefer my books as text, instead of audio files.

The title of the post is similar to saying e.g. "ARM CPU is bad UX", and
complain that you can't mine Bitcoin effectively on ARM.

~~~
humanrebar
The counterargument would be that _your_ usage patterns are the niche ones. I
suppose that's an empirical question. Does anyone have any numbers either way?

~~~
bakabaka9
Presently there is no additional cost to choosing a smartphone with the right
amount of memory for one's specific usage pattern, so who's being "niche"
makes no difference. Linux on desktop is arguably also niche, yet no one is
hurt by the fact that PCs actually support it.

If Apple were producing just the 16GB model, _then_ usage numbers would
probably be in order. As of now, things are just at their optimal state, where
everyone can get what they want.

