Removal of MicroSD Support : The worst decision in techworld's history

[chirantha7777]

As a person living in a third world country let me express my deepest objection to the path tech giants are taking with regard to the removal of the MicroSD card. The explations given for such removal are baby talk from companies who make their living off the consumer. Their sole purpose of doing such is that they get a chance to earn more by forcing the consumer to buy their extremely expensive internal storage. Companies such as Google also wish to make money off cloud storage plus they wish make internet service providers even richer because in countries like Sri Lanka a GB of data costs the user 2USD. Which makes cloud storage practically useless. Its clear that with the removal of the MicroSD card companies such as Google and Samsung have a win win situation and would be also praised by ISP's maybe even a underhand million dollar commission to those who made the decision not to have a MicroSD card. I believe consumer protection authorties of all governments around the world should take these tech giants to court over such un-practical and unjustified decision which renders such expensive devices practically useless in terms of usability. Which takes away the freedom of the consumer in the modern day and age of expansion.

Also such devices should be advertised clearly saying "Warning : No support for storage expansion" because many of those who bought devices such as the Nexus 6P and Samsung S6 and S6 edge where unaware of the lack of MicroSD support. Microsoft and Lumia lost market in countries like Sri Lanka because of this exact reason.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Thanks for your thoughts. Here are a few of mine:

1. SD cards are by no means going away. There are still quite a few major devices out there that support microSD cards (like the LG, HTC, and Motorola flagships).

2. SD cards have traditionally been most useful for media storage, rather than app installation storage. Marshmallow introduced adoptable storage, which allows the SD card to become part of Internal Storage. With this development, I suspect things will swing back towards more devices with SD card support again.

3. I've had conversations with someone in the flash memory industry who told me that the memory used for consumer SD cards is bottom-of-the-barrel in terms of quality and reliability (even for top brands like SanDisk) when compared to memory used for enterprise. This means higher risk of SD card defects, corruption, or failure. On top of that, the incidence of counterfeit cards on the market is fairly high. Using cards like these for adoptable storage might cause some serious issues, since the cards are being regarded as the actual internal storage.

4. More and more devices are offering very high internal storage capacities (like 64-128 GB). These devices aren't always exorbitantly priced--e.g., the ASUS ZenFone 2 with 64 GB is $299. As internal storage increases, the need for expandable storage goes down.

5. It's true that manufacturers and retailers need to be honest and forthcoming about tech specfiications; however, it is also incumbent on the consumer to make educated decisions, and to do some kind of research beforehand (especially for tech).

 

[Aquila]

Their sole purpose of doing such

I'd recommend avoiding absolutes, especially when you're incorrect about the rest of the sentence and the following sentence. Go do some research on the real reasons for removing expandable storage then let us know if you still feel it is justified or not.

Also, $2 per GB is a fantastic deal. In the US people are paying around $8-15 per GB and they pay that whether they use those GB or not.

My last point, is if you spend hundreds of dollars on a device and have no idea if it has the features that you want.... this problem is easily solvable.

 

[Golfdriver97]

forcing the consumer to buy their extremely expensive internal storage

However, it is much more reliable. I have had 3 SanDisk and a PNY card get corrupted on me. 2 of the Sandisks I was able to recover the data from. The third and the PNY were gone. I was personally glad when Android was moving away from SD cards.

For me, Sd cards are no longer an option.

 

[trsbbs]

However, it is much more reliable. I have had 3 SanDisk and a PNY card get corrupted on me. 2 of the Sandisks I was able to recover the data from. The third and the PNY were gone. I was personally glad when Android was moving away from SD cards.

For me, Sd cards are no longer an option.

Had over a dozen SD cards over the years and none have failed me. I buy brand name cards from reputable sellers. Thats why I have my M9. It had expandable storage and didnt force me to use a cloud.

 

[B. Diddy]

I've had at least two or three name-brand cards fail, all bought at well-known bricks and mortar stores.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I've had failures with SanDisk cards which were genuine and purchased from Best Buy.

 

[anon(632115)]

Also such devices should be advertised clearly saying "Warning : No support for storage expansion" because many of those who bought devices such as the Nexus 6P and Samsung S6 and S6 edge where unaware of the lack of MicroSD support. Microsoft and Lumia lost market in countries like Sri Lanka because of this exact reason.

If people are too stupid not to research their next device I would suggest they are too stupid to own a phone. The rest of the post is nonsense too. Take a firm to court because they don't offer SD cards?? You either buy or don't buy the product. You can't force manufacturers to do things against their wishes because it suits you and yes, I've also suffered many corrupt SD cards.

 

[dpham00]

Mod Note, let's take things down a notch. It is fine to discuss, but no reason for things to get heated.

 

[anon(632115)]

Sorry but the tone of this started from the off by the OP referring to "baby talk" from the tech giants and other wild misinformed allegations.

 

[Inders99]

I'm more upset at sealed backs and non-replaceable batteries.