Is micro SD making a comeback in the HTC One (M8)?

Kevin OQuinn

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Re: Is micro SD making a comeback in the HTC M8?

So what? Worst case scenario is that you just use internal storage...which would be the same case if you had no SD at all. So there is still no downside. You still have more options with SD than without.

No. Worst case scenario is that you take an update from 4.3 to 4.4 and it breaks a lot of things. Starting with 4.4 wouldn't allow for this problem, but updating to it would, and has.
 

A895

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Re: Is micro SD making a comeback in the HTC M8?

You mean if other features were abandoned to put the SD card back in? No idea. But engineering an SD card slot and making sure it doesn't break other things probably isn't as simple as we think. The internal layout of the board and other electronic stuff has to be redone, and the antennas as well.

You would think if they had to compromise so much we wouldn't have the cool phones that actually have an SD card slot. The highly praised Z2 has an SD card slot, the Note 3, and even the Nokia Lumia 1520 had one too. Something tells me its just laziness on the part of the manufacturers.

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Kevin OQuinn

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Re: Is micro SD making a comeback in the HTC M8?

You would think if they had to compromise so much we wouldn't have the cool phones that actually have an SD card slot. The highly praised Z2 has an SD card slot, the Note 3, and even the Nokia Lumia 1520 had one too. Something tells me its just laziness on the part of the manufacturers.

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Well no, it's not just laziness. I'm sure it's not just one factor, but nothing is ever left out because of "laziness". That's a silly term that people like to throw around.

SD card support was dropped from Android with ICS. HTC went along with that. Other manufacturers chose not to. (btw, Windows Phone supports it fully in version 8, so the Lumia comparison isn't really apt here).

In KK Google introduced new API's to support certain SD card features. HTC, once again, chose to go along with Google.

Now, I'm not saying that's the only reason. There could be any number of reasons really, but that one sticks out to me. Maybe HTC just didn't have the engineering resources to reverse engineer the code back into Android for it to work properly (this is key, don't add a feature if it's not 100& functional). Maybe they tried, and found issues with it that weren't easily (or even couldn't be) 100% resolved and scrapped it. We'll never really know the answer, and can only speculate at this point. Maybe they saw it as less of an issue at the high-end phone market so didn't bother to include it. I can probably speculate reasons all day long, really.
 

JeffDenver

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Re: Is micro SD making a comeback in the HTC M8?

Oh like complexity of designing it into a unibody aluminum phone frame?
They don't seem to have had a huge problem figuring it out for the 2014 model.

Yep. I would agree. Kind of what I was referring to also. They want to keep the aluminum I think, because it was universally praised by press and media. It was a key point of differentiation for them in the market. It doesn't change the fact that putting an SD slot in it made the job of the engineers more difficult because even more has to be changed internally to account for that.
Apparently there is such a large demand for it that they decided to devote the massive engineering resources necessary to make it happen.

That, or it is not difficult to add SD at all and it was just a design choice to begin with, and they are simply caving now because of demand. I am thinking it is probably the latter.

Ideology I'm not sure. Speculation here....but Google took away support, and then added it back in. FWIW (HTC seemed to want to follow that)
Google does not want you storing stuff on the phone...they want you using their cloud services. If Google had its way (IMO) they would get rid of SD support entirely. SD's popularity is the only thing stopping them from doing that.
 

dmmarck

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Re: Is micro SD making a comeback in the HTC M8?

They don't seem to have had a huge problem figuring it out for the 2014 model.


Apparently there is such a large demand for it that they decided to devote the massive engineering resources necessary to make it happen.

That, or it is not difficult to add SD at all and it was just a design choice to begin with, and they are simply caving now because of demand. I am thinking it is probably the latter.


Google does not want you storing stuff on the phone...they want you using their cloud services. If Google had its way (IMO) they would get rid of SD support entirely. SD's popularity is the only thing stopping them from doing that.

Presumably, the engineering resources HTC dedicated to the M8 were less than the resources necessaryto go from the One X to M7. This is, in all likelihood, due to the vast amount of similarities between the M7 and M8. The differences between the One X and M7 are much, much more significant, and thus it's reasonable to presume that the engineering resources were allocated elsewhere in order to push the M7 concept.

Here, with the M8, HTC could probably afford to devote more resources to "minor" stuff, hence the SD card and dual camera setup while maintaining a decent amount of M7 stuff.

Just a guess, but I think it's a plausible one. Developing a new product requires more resources than essentially "updating" a product.
 

Zacharyw70

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Re: Is micro SD making a comeback in the HTC M8?

Personally I love any phone or tablet that includes an SD Card slot. I know I'll very likely not use the space but it's a nice convenience if I decide to download loads of movies, or games. Although that being said I think it's being overly generous since I feel that the 32GB's of storage the HTC One will have is already enough for more than enough people.
 

Raptor007

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Re: Is micro SD making a comeback in the HTC M8?

When mobile data prices drop down or we get more data for the money we already pay then microSD is a key factor for me. I like to carry media files and store my images on the card. I have a tablet for the big games and that works for me.
 

Love Divine

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Re: Is micro SD making a comeback in the HTC M8?

They don't seem to have had a huge problem figuring it out for the 2014 model.


Apparently there is such a large demand for it that they decided to devote the massive engineering resources necessary to make it happen.

That, or it is not difficult to add SD at all and it was just a design choice to begin with, and they are simply caving now because of demand. I am thinking it is probably the latter.


Google does not want you storing stuff on the phone...they want you using their cloud services. If Google had its way (IMO) they would get rid of SD support entirely. SD's popularity is the only thing stopping them from doing that.

You are discounting the inherent negatives of SD card support as a medium. It's slower, less secure, and a huge source of error in and of itself. There are very good reasons why Google moved away from the medium. I'm not saying it can't be useful. But to ignore its downsides is foolish.

And people around here act as if it's some sort of silver bullet to sales, and the sole reason that the One didn't sell more. I don't think consumer demand had much to do with it. Us neckbeards may be loud, but we makeup a miniscule part of the userbase in the grand scheme of things. I think what Kevin said is excellent (as usual), and is a much more plausible explanation for why SD cards are back this time around.

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JeffDenver

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Re: Is micro SD making a comeback in the HTC M8?

You are discounting the inherent negatives of SD card support as a medium.
For a very good reason.

It's slower, less secure, and a huge source of error in and of itself. There are very good reasons why Google moved away from the medium. I'm not saying it can't be useful. But to ignore its downsides is foolish.
That is like saying we should not include air conditioning on cars because it uses more gas while it's on.

It'd be nice to have the option there and just not have it on if you are that concerned about gas.

And people around here act as if it's some sort of silver bullet to sales, and the sole reason that the One didn't sell more.
It's just one more negative. Where is the downside to giving people what they want? Do you really think the average person is going to prefer a phone without expandable memory, all else being equal? They are not going to know or care about the security or speed issues. I am much more into phones than they are, and even *I* don't care about those things.

If you tell the average consumer "here is phone A without expandable memory" and "here is the exact same phone, but with expandable memory" which do you think they are going to prefer?
 

Scott7217

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Re: Is micro SD making a comeback in the HTC M8?

There are very good reasons why Google moved away from the medium.

Could Google make the decision that all Android devices will not have removable storage -- no exceptions? Maybe they could block Google services (e.g. Search, Gmail, Maps, Play Store, etc.) on devices that did not comply.
 

Raptor007

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Re: Is micro SD making a comeback in the HTC M8?

Google may make the OS incapable of seeing any external storage all together, in which case I would likely no longer buy Android devices unless OEM's offered 128GB phones. I need storage, and cloud storage is NOT the answer for me. I am not going to pay a boat load of money to the carrier or hunt for Wi-Fi just so I can access information or store images to the cloud when I could do both locally on my device. I have never had a card fail in my phones ever. I have had microSD fail when used with a card reader on my windows desktops which is likely due to Windows. No external storage, no reason to stay unless internal storage pics up the slack.
 

KSDroid01

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Re: Is micro SD making a comeback in the HTC M8?

If the M8 truly has an SD card slot, then HTC has made a determination that the benefits outweigh the risks.

Well...to be more accurate, I'd guess that HTC has decided that the MARKETING benefit of an SD card outweighs whatever inherent risks are associated with an SD card.

Posted via the "Best Smartphone of 2013" One
 

Scott7217

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Re: Is micro SD making a comeback in the HTC M8?

Well...to be more accurate, I'd guess that HTC has decided that the MARKETING benefit of an SD card outweighs whatever inherent risks are associated with an SD card.

Exactly. I believe that HTC's marketing has determined that including an SD card slot is more likely to result in increased sales of the M8. Since HTC is in the business of selling phones, this strategy will benefit them.
 

Scott7217

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Re: Is micro SD making a comeback in the HTC M8?

No external storage, no reason to stay unless internal storage pics up the slack.

Even if Android phones came with more internal storage, they would be copying the Apple model. iPhones have up to 64 GB of storage, and iPads can go up to 128 GB. However, none of these devices from Apple have a built-in SD card slot. If your phone has an SD card slot, that's just one more feature that differentiates your phone from an iPhone. That, in turn, makes it less likely that a jury will believe that you are copying Apple's design. In the grand scheme of things, I think having a slot is better than not having one, if only for legal purposes.
 

Raptor007

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Re: Is micro SD making a comeback in the HTC M8?

So all of the current Android phones with no microSD slot are copying Apple, I don't think so. They did it for whatever reasons they had, cost, technology, whatever. Bottom line is if Google wants microSD to go away the internal storage needs to go UP. I want more internal storage (plus my microSD) and of course removable battery.
 

Scott7217

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Re: Is micro SD making a comeback in the HTC M8?

So all of the current Android phones with no microSD slot are copying Apple, I don't think so.

So let's compare the phones in terms of storage:

HTC One (M8) - has a microSD card slot

iPhone 5s - does not have a microSD card slot

If lawyers wanted to convince a jury that the M8 is not copying the iPhone, they would simply insert a microSD card into the M8 in front of them. They would also demonstrate that the same procedure would not be possible with an iPhone because an iPhone doesn't have a slot at all. So having a microSD card slot is an extra point of differentiation that helps protect the M8 (and other Android phones) from lawsuits.