Is 16GB's enough?
- Thread starter CasinoK1D
- Start date
Here is the deal. I'm just trying to answer the original question. Is 16GB enough? Not, should they have given different size options. Not, should they have made it 32GB. Which, honestly, the answer to both of those is a resounding YES. But, is 16GB enough? I think for many people it is. Is it cutting edge? No. Was it a good decision on AT&T/HTC's part? No. I think it was a big mistake, personally. But that's not what was in question.
I use to be a guy that loaded up his 32GB micro-sd card to the max. Since I've embraced the cloud, I find myself keeping about 4-6GB on my device, and it actually feels like I have more variety and I perform less management than before. I almost think of the memory on my phone as a cache now instead of storage. I think most people can easily make 16GB work (if they have WiFi).
I guess we should expect laptop/desktop manufacturers to start making their systems with smaller hard drives. After all, cloud access is much more reliable from a PC than from a mobile device, and bandwidth is faster and essentially free. Extend the carriers' logic to the desktop and if 16GB is enough for a phone, maybe 250GB should be fine for a computer.
Guess what? Not gonna happen. Once you get up into serious amounts of storage, it's much harder to give enough away for free.
Whether on a PC or a phone, people will eventually be forced to realize that free cloud storage is like free heroin. After two years, when you're hooked on two years of that 20G of storage you don't have to think about, how much will you be willing to pay to keep that access? Of course, you could download all your files back to your PC and manage them yourself, but (a) you won't have anywhere access anymore and (b) most of that 90% who are "fine in 16G" won't have the technical chops, discipline or spare time to manage their files manually.
I don't think it's coincidence that cloud storage is being offered free and internal phone storage is being reduced just as smartphone adoption is starting to go through the roof. Call it the "new normal", but in a couple of years millions of people will believe that the cloud and cache-sized local storage is simply the way it's done.
Do you think phone contracts in 2014 will bundle free cloud storage? Or that there will be unlimited data plans, with or without caps? I'm guessing no to both questions.
My short answer to the forum question is, no, 16G is not enough today, and 32G won't be enough a year from now. Phones should get more powerful, not less, as technology improves.
Guess what? Not gonna happen. Once you get up into serious amounts of storage, it's much harder to give enough away for free.
Whether on a PC or a phone, people will eventually be forced to realize that free cloud storage is like free heroin. After two years, when you're hooked on two years of that 20G of storage you don't have to think about, how much will you be willing to pay to keep that access? Of course, you could download all your files back to your PC and manage them yourself, but (a) you won't have anywhere access anymore and (b) most of that 90% who are "fine in 16G" won't have the technical chops, discipline or spare time to manage their files manually.
I don't think it's coincidence that cloud storage is being offered free and internal phone storage is being reduced just as smartphone adoption is starting to go through the roof. Call it the "new normal", but in a couple of years millions of people will believe that the cloud and cache-sized local storage is simply the way it's done.
Do you think phone contracts in 2014 will bundle free cloud storage? Or that there will be unlimited data plans, with or without caps? I'm guessing no to both questions.
My short answer to the forum question is, no, 16G is not enough today, and 32G won't be enough a year from now. Phones should get more powerful, not less, as technology improves.
The difference is 2TB 3.5in hard drives cost about the same as a 64GB micro SD card. Computers are a different beast, because power consumption and form-factor (size) isn't an issue. Computers and mobile devices are different beasts, with different feature-sets, and different strengths and weaknesses. Just because they are both computing devices, doesn't mean the same logic should be applied. I know you know this, but I just want to establish that just because I feel one way about storage for mobile devices, doesn't mean I feel that way about all computing machines in general. My opinion isn't a global view of how I think storage should work for all machines. It is just how I think it should work (or you can make it work) for mobile devices with the current state of technology.
Yes. Even better, I think you won't need to worry about bundles, cause anyone will just be able to get it. I've watched the current state of Cloud storage get cheaper and cheaper over the years. The amount given away for free is growing too. I just watched Google Drive price-cut Dropbox by 75%. Think of it this way... How much did a 1TB drive cost 3 years ago? How much does it cost today? Storage get's cheaper and cheaper, and therefore Cloud storage will too.
You are already starting to taste the future. Google wants you to use their products so bad, that they will provide free storage (Google Music). Same with Amazon. I think eventually, Cloud storage will be completely free. As soon as the cost to host the cloud files is less than the revenue generated by people that make purchases (music, movies, books, apps) from that cloud vendor, cloud storage fees will be no more. I think we are getting closer to that reality. Maybe I'm crazy.
jeffreii
CrackBerry Convert
When the cloud is totally free and unlimited...
and the data plans are cheap and unlimited...
and the dead spots are all covered with super-fast LTE2^4 (stay with me here)...
even inside large concrete buildings, airplanes, subways, the moon...
then the cloud will be awesome and 16GB will be enough! Although by then 16GB will be more like 16TB and I will wake up from that dream laughing!
Never mentioned anything about data plans, speeds or coverage. No need to be snarky.
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jeffreii
CrackBerry Convert
Sarcastic not snarky - wasn't trying to be rude, sorry. If you mention the cloud you have to mention the tools to use/access the cloud. Currently those tools are expensive and not reliable enough to replace local storage (was my point).
Going to this from an HTC Aria with an embarrassing 185 mb available phone storage, 16 gb is more than enough. I have been using the Aria for two years. Doesn't mean I wouldn't love more, just that I am content.
Granted, the internal storage available for apps is great improvement, no doubt, but the point of contention here is the fact that 16GBs = *all storage* (including media and personal files). The Aria, while vastly outdated in internal storage, at least has SD Card support, so the space you have for music, pictures, movies, etc, is NOT limited to 185 MB.
FWIW, I own a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. It's a great device, and I'm very happy with it. When I bought it, I figured 16GB model would be more than sufficient for my needs, since I don't really store many videos or anything like that on it. While I do love my Tab, I do wish I had bought the 32GB version. Now that I use it all the time, I do find myself frequently having to go in and delete files to "make room" for other stuff I want to load onto it. Not a huge deal, but again, I do wish I had the 32GB. I guess my point is that sometimes what you *think* you need turns out to be off the mark once you actually start to use a device.
That taste of the future includes paying out the rear for unlimited data (if you can even get it) to access your own dang files. You guys just don't seem to get it. (and if you have to do it at home on wifi, there's no point to even having cloud access)
Exactly, my man! These people don't want to think about data costs and limited connection in many, many places, because it makes their whole (weak) argument moot.
Does anyone know if you've already got a Dropbox account, if there's a way to "activate" the 25GB on it, or do we need to create a brand new account?
I don't know. I understand that Google wants me to use their products instead of Facebook's, or Apple's, or Amazon's. But why? They don't do it to get my business, in the traditional sense - I don't recall ever writing a check to Google or Facebook, although I have done business with Amazon within the past week. Yet Google is among the most profitable businesses on the planet, and their stock price is pretty decent for a company that gives everything away.
To me, Google is the ultimate middleman. Businesses write them lots of checks for things like AdSense so Google can connect them with potential customers like me. I write checks to those businesses, and the cycle is complete.
The better the quality of Google's information about me, the better they can target ads to me and the more valuable they are to the people who want to sell me stuff. Google has lots of competitors who are doing the same thing, and if they can provide better information about me, some businesses will write checks to them instead of Google.
How does Google get more information about me? They funnel more and more of my daily life through their servers, and then they write cool algorithms to figure out whose ads to flash on the screen while I'm using Google services. Businesses love them, and write even bigger checks to them. Of course, Google's competitors are doing exactly the same thing.
Which brings me back to 16G of phone storage. (See how I kept this post on topic?) It's to the carriers' advantage to boost data usage by squeezing our stuff off the phone and into the cloud, but it's also in Google's interest because it gives them more of our stuff to scan, and improves their performance for their real business, targeted ads. So reduced phone storage and Google Drive are introduced in the same month. I don't think that's a coincidence.
When a profit-making company gives away something that costs them money, you have to ask: where's that money coming from? We like to think of ourselves as Google's customers, but their advertisers are really their customers. And what are those advertisers buying? In a word, us. And the more information they can squeeze out of us, the better product (us) they can provide to their customers.
So I actually think you're right, and we may very well continue to see free cloud services for a long while, as long as the market for the cloud stays competitive and Google and others can make their money elsewhere. This is a race by a number of large companies and startups to capture our data, and they're all spending large amounts of money (translate: giving us lots of expensive storage for free) to come out on top. If the cloud storage business stabilizes, though, watch for the providers to turn the cloud itself into a revenue stream. At that point, our entire lives will be out there and we'll have no choice but to pay up. Maybe not in 2014, but I think not later than 2020. Just my wild guess.
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Yes it is enough.
Google is designed around the cloud.
If you just can't part from holding onto all your bobbles in a local storage, maybe consider buying a Blackberry or Windows Phone?
Extra One X phone storage = Google Drive (or Box.com or Dropbox.)
I just uploaded an APK to Google Drive and clicked on it from the phone and it installed.
Functionally Google Drive very similar to local storage.
Google is designed around the cloud.
If you just can't part from holding onto all your bobbles in a local storage, maybe consider buying a Blackberry or Windows Phone?
Extra One X phone storage = Google Drive (or Box.com or Dropbox.)
I just uploaded an APK to Google Drive and clicked on it from the phone and it installed.
Functionally Google Drive very similar to local storage.
I believe you'll sign into your Dropbox account and the 25GB will be added to whatever storage you have. I've built up some extra storage by doing those dumb tasks like installing it on a phone.
I give up. 99% of the time, I don't access content from the cloud. I access it from my local storage on my phone (which was sync'd with the cloud the evening before via WiFi automatically). Whether I have cellular coverage or any data left on my plan doesn't affect me or the strategy I've described.
We don't think about data costs, because it is completely irrelevant to the workflow we've described. It's sort of like someone telling me that sending photos via email from my phone is a bad idea, because MMS text messages cost money. One has nothing to do with the other.
Generally speaking 16gb is not enough but you can make it work. The more space you have the more things you will store and vice versa. Are you new to smart phones? If not you already have an idea. My current phone has 32gb, my last one had 16gb and i made it work. Do you need every single photo you take, or every media you have stored on your phone? Not really. Online storage doesntbwork for me because i don't have unlimited data. Will that work for you. Also, android devices are terrible media players.
I will be coming from an iPhone 16GB, and I'm sure 16GB, or should I say 10GB will be enough.
I guess I need to convert all my iTunes music to .mp3's so I can play them on my HTC. Great, more work to do.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I guess I need to convert all my iTunes music to .mp3's so I can play them on my HTC. Great, more work to do.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Mobius360
Well-known member
Your Android phone will play all your itunes music files just fine. No need to convert unless they are older protected files.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Xparent Blue Tapatalk 2
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Xparent Blue Tapatalk 2
Wait are saying that it will play .mp4 tracks, too? Surely not, right?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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