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Droid Does... only have 256MB of storage for apps
Motorola's Droid is a sweet piece of hardware that's hyped to give the iPhone a run for its money, especially since it's running the new Android 2.0 OS, and works on the Verizon network in the US. We care about software here at Download Squad though, and there's some dismaying news about the Droid on that front: it has only 256MB for app storage. Seriously. The Droid reportedly only packs a 512MB ROM (that's the built-in memory), of which only half is allocated for apps. There are some iPhone games that couldn't even fit in that teeny-weeny storage space! But at least it's expandable, right? Um, nope. Google doesn't support installing apps to the SD cards that Motorola relies on, so developers are pretty limited in terms of file sizes for their Android 2.0 software.
The Droid may have a solid CPU and GPU for gaming, but games that take full advantage of that hardware are likely to need 100 megabytes or more of storage space. That's going to make things pretty tough until Android 2.0 comes to a device with a lot more pre-installed flash memory.
[via Daring Fireball]
UPDATE: While it's true that the Droid only has 256MB for apps, commenters have pointed out that various resources for the apps (graphics, etc.) CAN be stored on the device's SD cards. It looks like the situation isn't as bad as the numbers seem to indicate at first.
Comments
31
Subscribe to commentsDeoWulfNov 9th 2009 7:45PM
Holy crap... that's like, a death sentence. I was really hoping it would do well, too.
Who made that decision?
CamNov 9th 2009 7:56PM
This is inexcusable.... I thought this was going to be a cool phone too...
Wasn't there an android mod that allowed you to install apps on an sd card?
subfuzeNov 9th 2009 7:59PM
This isn't totally accurate. Yes, it's true that the core of the application needs to live in the 256mb space (and yes, I agree that it's really dumb that apps can't be installed onto the SD card), but apps installed in the limited ROM can write to and read from the SD card. So for instance, a game engine could live in the core and download all of its graphics and sound onto the SD card and access them from there. I have a number of apps installed on my G1 that function in a similar way.
DafretyNov 9th 2009 8:11PM
This isn't that bad. I have the G1 which has the smallest ROM to date. It was a bit annoying, at first, but now that I'm rooted I have AppsToSD with 456 MB for apps as apposed to around 70 MB. I could have allocated much more than that too. I'm sure eventually people will figure out how to do the same for the Droid, but until then at least you have more starting space than the G1!
EvanNov 9th 2009 8:16PM
Apps2SD was one of the great things that came out of the XDA forums. It proved the functionality of the concept and is currently being rolled into the official branch.
Lazy reporting.
754BoyNov 9th 2009 8:35PM
Wow, I wonder why this didn't show up in the list of features. That is a SERIOUS negative for me. My Blackberry didn't have that much app storage space but its damn near 2010 and its unacceptable now considering that apps are getting bigger and the games are getting more and more advanced.
another guyNov 9th 2009 8:36PM
as mentioned above the 256mb limit is for executable code only. if a game has say 100mb of data it can read/write that data from/to the 16gb sd card. An app with even a one mb of executable code, without auxilary data, is pretty substantial.
This article should have had a little more research on the topic I think.
Level 5Nov 9th 2009 8:57PM
It's called rooting. Jesus, DSq is now another Apple fansite? Lovely.
ljohnso16Nov 9th 2009 9:08PM
wow i think the comments just kicked the articles ass, yeaa it did
gman2501399Nov 9th 2009 9:23PM
Is it really that bad, it's a phone, it's not a laptop. I would imagine you could fit enough apps with 256 mb.
sjhulseDec 19th 2009 1:33AM
You Right on with analagy. It's a great phone with lots of potential...you can't always hit a home run on the first swing, (Apple) Go "Android" crush the "Store"
MiloJasper
GeorgeNov 9th 2009 10:21PM
I'm running apps right now that use the SD card for storage. For example, I wanted on offline thesaurus and dictionary and it wasn't a problem finding ones that installed their DB's to the SD card.
The moral of story, of course, is to take anything from Daring Fireball that derides and Apple competitor with a large bucket of salt.
Jay HathawayNov 9th 2009 10:51PM
To be fair, the source article DF linked to was also a bit ambiguous on this point. Thanks to some sharp commenters for clarifying things for me.
ScurrNov 9th 2009 10:29PM
not to support trolling, here...
in essence the article is true in that it really only gives you that amount of room for app storage and relies upon data transfer from an SD card you must supply.
call me a fool, but for 200.00 they can add 8gb or 16gb of storage for pennies nowadays.
IMHO, getting closer to the iphone...but not there just yet.
MattNov 9th 2009 10:31PM
Remember when 640K was supposed to be enough for anything?
ScurrNov 9th 2009 10:30PM
ALSO
anything that requires work around and rooting etc to function properly is in essence a broken product.
milrtime83Nov 10th 2009 9:03AM
You mean like jailbreaking?
SlappyNov 9th 2009 10:44PM
Storing part of the app on SD cards seems tedious.
I thought one of the strong suits of having SD cards was to switch them in and out.
Now I'd have to label them and remember which was for photos and which was for apps.
Sounds like a floppy disk to me.
DeadlYRageNov 9th 2009 11:10PM
Who is the pea brain that decided the rom storage? o.0
CamNov 9th 2009 11:27PM
Is it too much to ask for a decent smartphone, with a large capacity ROM, and an SD card slot?