Great article to consider.

[OneMike]

To the people who ordered a 16GB iPad, here is a really interesting article. They have valid points as to why we might have made a bad move, even if 16GB was plenty of space on your iPad 1 or 2.

http://www.cio.in/news/retina-display-ready-apps-and-coming-ipad-storage-crunch-236502012

Let me know your opinions

You have to think about this before you purchase so I don't take it as a surprise. If you have a 16GB 2 and you're at 1GB free it may be something to think about. If you're like me and had a 16GB 2 with 11GB free average it's a non issue.

If I installed the Apple suite and was at 12GB free. The majority of my other daily apps iSSH 13.9MB, GoodReader 13.3MB, etc.. are small.

If I want to throw something big up there. Real Racing 2, Mass Effect, Infinity Blade. It'd still be over 10GB free.

My kids have an iPad 2 and have GB upon GB of apps, movies, etc.. they haven't used in forever. Other than never having to delete stuff you don't use and never seeing a computer to sync again. I can't see the need personally at this point.

 

[MR1324]

Im using three tricks:
1 - buying a wifi HDD to store HD movies/photos
2 - Restricting some apps to websites ie use the Twitter website than the app itself.
3 - Use non-retina for some other apps.

Retina eBooks are what are really scaring me. Im getting to 64GB btw

yup there are plenty of ways to work around the capacity limitation. the wifi hdd is a great one. pay less than $200 for 500GB and you will basically have more storage than anything Apple will offer on their ipads for generations to come.

 

[joshuaginter]

The developers of Tweetbot for iPad mentioned on Twitter how much Tweetbot's size will increase for Retina. 8.8mb to 24.6mb. He also mentions how much Apple's Universal apps have increased: iMovie = 70mb to 404mb, Keynote = 115mb to 327mb, Numbers = 109mb to 283mb and Pages = 95mb to 269mb. Just some hard evidence as to how much the app file sizes will increase. I can't imagine a large game like Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf.

Someone also mentioned the ease of use of iPhoto for iOS earlier. I completely agree with this. As soon as iPhoto was released, I bought it and uploaded my entire photo library onto my iPad in order to edit all of my previous traveling pictures. My iPad, normally 30% full, is now 80% full because of the great experience of iPhoto.

I would expect a 128GB version next year.

 

[Gregintosh]

The retina graphics is the main reason I opted to go for 32GB for both me and the wife.

I currently use a 32GB iPad 2 and have about 18 GB free, but I plan on using magazines more, as well as manipulating graphics more often. If I start storing some of my photo library on it, that will really cut into the capacity.

So instead of getting the 16GB as I originally planned to save a few bucks I decided to pay that extra $100 for piece of mind.

(I am also debating if paying $100 more for AppleCare+ might be a good idea as well, since retina display parts might be more expensive to fix than old displays).

 

[slippery-pete]

Even with previous iDevices, storage was never really an issue for me. So long as you plan accordingly then whatever size iPad you got will do just fine. So the apps will be getting a little larger, big deal, as that is to be expected with the shiny new Retina Display. It's only really an issue for those who keep every app they download on their device or carry their entire iTunes library with them. Previous poster mentioned that most people will use their iPad for web browsing/email/general online stuff which I think is true. I personally see no need to have all my music, a ton of HD vids/movies and 400 apps on my device. With careful planning you can make the most of your iPad regardless of size.

Well said. I went with 16g. I have no need to have all my media and apps with me all the time. iTunes makes the process so easy to manage I don't mind doing it.

 

[DS3]

I was able to manage 16 gb fine on the 2, merely deleting large games that I had no intention of playing any time soon anyway. Streaming most media and eventually being able to view movies off SD cards through jailbreak anyway.

I am a little concerned about 16 gb on the 3 as not only will the retina apps increase it.. but I already store a lot of photos on my iPad and Ill wont those in full resolution now....

I may still go 16 but Im thinking of going 32 which I wouldn't consider sans-retina.

 

[spiderman0616]

LOL people upgrade because of fear. If you know what you are doing and have used 16GB before, you will be fine.

??

My 16 GB iPad 2 was constantly full, and I got really sick of having to allocate space for new stuff. Ordered the 32 GB for my new iPad for that reason.

 

[Sirmausalot]

Although technology is rapidly changing, I'm diving into the iPad (3rd generation) precisely because of the retina display. And I do not think it will change much over the next 3 years and push me to upgrade soon. For that reason, I think it is crucial to stretch the budget and get at minimum the 32gb, if not more because I think the life cycle of this particular iPad will be significantly longer than the last two.

For those of you fretting, sell your 16GB for a profit and have the discipline to wait 1 month to use the profit for a higher capacity model. MacRumors is your friend and that's my advice. If you sell and repurchase, you'll be much, much happier in the long run.

 

[vega07]

With this problem, Apple should have upgraded the baseline storage to 32GB.

Makes me regret getting the 16GB. I think I'll just have to find other alternatives to Pages and Keynote. I never understood why they took up so much space compared to the alternatives.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Not knowing of the article beforehand, someone mentioned the size of iPhoto and I thought 16gb will fill up fast. I never even used all 32 GB on my iPad 1 but could come close when prepping it for travel with movies. I don't consider the 16GB to viable today. If I really needed the 4G I would have gone 16 because getting into that pricing means I may as well consider a laptop.

 

[master-ceo]

Cloud Storage: Why should I have to pay somebody to access my own data?

Yeah I use the cloud, but I use it for free. Although its limited, it works for my use.

Between all my free services, I have 100GB of storage to use.

 

[borgqueenx]

yup there are plenty of ways to work around the capacity limitation. the wifi hdd is a great one. pay less than $200 for 500GB and you will basically have more storage than anything Apple will offer on their ipads for generations to come.

it doesnt work beautifully. You cant store apps and games on it

 

[Shutterbug78]

I got a 16gb, just like my iPad (1st gen) and I'm pretty sure I'll be fine. I use it mainly as a pass-through item. (Watch a lot of netflix or play music/movies through home sharing).

I can't imagine books are going to take up too much space and dropbox also helps hold files.

 

[WLS]

hmmm Interesting story. It's true that downloaded hirez pictures and 5MP photos will use more storage.
I'm not expecting a lot of games to need that much more because they tend to use vector graphics rather than bitmapped backgrounds but yes some more storage might be a good idea. I've been thinking of getting a 16GB like my last ones but on reflection I had that about 3/4 full and I may just exceed that this time around. I'm going to seriously consider bumping up my storage to 32GB.
Just to be safe.

 

[Jailbreak ATV]

Thanks for the article! Very interesting.

 

[ripkord]

I dont sync movies or music, its all on my PC. 16gb is fine for me. If I need to take movies they can go on an SD card at a fraction of the price Apple is charging for storage.

 

[Southernboyj]

With this problem, Apple should have upgraded the baseline storage to 32GB.

Makes me regret getting the 16GB. I think I'll just have to find other alternatives to Pages and Keynote. I never understood why they took up so much space compared to the alternatives.

My thoughts exactly

----------

Thanks for the article! Very interesting.

Welcome

 

[vincenz]

Very true. Good read for everyone but the most casual of users.

 

[vega07]

I understand why Apple wouldn't want to increase baseline to 32GB to entice people to upgrade but what they've done (if the article is correct) is severely limit their device to a near point of handicap. Also I would imagine the stock iOS to require more than just 2GB of space for retina.

This would have been the correct time to increase storage.

But we'll all have to wait and see. Hopefully though, I won't regret my 16GB purchase.

 

[Djentleman]

I agree. It's something that I considered before I bought my first pad. My previous iPhone 3G and current 4s are both 16gb, and although I didn't have the money to buy a larger capacity, I thought I would be able to cope with what I needed. Unfortunately I've been wrong on both occasions and due to the limited space only iPhone I went and bought a classic, but I'm not regretting that decision because wits just another device I need to carry which isn't practical when you have a phone that already plays music. So I though, to save me hassle I'd get the 32 and reading that article, I think I've made the right choice.

 

[elmz]

I agree with the article, and I am a little worried now. Fortunately, I think I'll be able to manage with 16GB. I'm not the type to load up a ton of games and keeps them. I only keep apps I actually use and delete the ones I don't play with after a few weeks. The same goes for pictures or video, and I seriously doubt I will be using it to capture videos/pictures. But I will be editing them on the iPad via iCloud.

 

[htg]

I bought the 16GB + WiFi model. I'm not to worried about storage space, especially nowadays. With all the Wifi drives around (see here), if I really need the extra storage in a few months time, I can get it reasonably affordably.

 

[wake6830]

I think my 16GB LTE version will be fine for me. I don't plan to take many photos with it, and I won't be putting any mp3s or videos on it. I'll use it to browse the web, stream Netflix and Spotify, and play the occasional game. I'm not the kind of person who keeps every app I've ever downloaded on there - I sync and switch apps in and out based on whether or not I plan to use them.

My iPhone 4 is only 16GB and still has some space even though I have a good number of mp3s on it, a number of games I don't play very often, and a fairly large library of photos.

 

[Blakjack]

If this information is true, this is going to be a huge problem. Double the size for each app? Someone has already mentioned that a 16gig is basically now an 8gig. I dont know about you guys, but an 8gig iPad sounds like it would really suck. At the end of the day, this means that all those people sneaking by barely making it with a 16gig are about to get really frustrated.

Lets hope this doesnt turn out the way it obviously looks like it will turn out.

 

[dacreativeguy]

While I agree with the article, are Ipad 2 owners with 16 GB versions actually showing 14 GB available capacity?

The difference between marketed and actual capacity increases with the larger drives. 1028 - 1000 bytes = 28 byte difference. Multiply 28 by 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and all those bytes add up!

I have had 32GB iPads and haven't had a problem, but I ordered a 64GB iPad3. If I keep it for 2 years, that extra $100 becomes negligible, so may as well have the extra space.

I haven't done the math on this, but I'm sure that buying 32GB extra of cloud space would cost a lot more than $100 over the same 2 year period. And if you don't have an unlimited data plan, god help you!