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iPad Is 32GB becomming the standard for iPads?

marc55

marc55

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 14, 2011
872
283
We have a 32GB iPad3, and are considering an iPad 4, so that all our devices will have a common Lightning connection. I wanted to get a 16GB, but am realizing that 16GB is just not enough capacity. We have 11GB of music on the iPad, and only 1.8GB of free space left. So even if we did not load the music, we would need 22GB. Heck, Pinterest alone uses up 5.5GB.

Then there's IOS 7, and I'm sure it will use more free space.

So is 32GB slowly becoming the new minimum for iPads?

Thank you!
 
marc55 said:
We have a 32GB iPad3, and are considering an iPad 4, so that all our devices will have a common Lightning connection. I wanted to get a 16GB, but am realizing that 16GB is just not enough capacity. We have 11GB of music on the iPad, and only 1.8GB of free space left. So even if we did not load the music, we would need 22GB. Heck, Pinterest alone uses up 5.5GB.

Then there's IOS 7, and I'm sure it will use more free space.

So is 32GB slowly becoming the new minimum for iPads?

Thank you!
Click to expand...

I hope so 16GB is way to small it should be 32GB base 64GB mid 128GB the best
 
marc55 said:
...
So is 32GB slowly becoming the new minimum for iPads?

Thank you!
Click to expand...
People's needs differ, but it does look like 32GB should be the minimum configuration now. If you really want to go from an iPad 3 to an iPad 4, look at Apple refurbished to save some money. Although in your case, I'd recommend waiting for the iPad 5 which should be announced in a few months.
 
32GB is just right for me. I don't think that 32GB should be minimum configuration, I know many who just need about 10GB.
 
I don't need to worry about music storage because I use iTunes Match but I wouldn't consider a 16gb ipad or iPhone. App sizes and photos get bigger with each evolution of the devices.
 
I don't think so, but it just depends on what you use your iPad for. If you use it as a glorified ebook reader, 16GB is way more than enough. A movie watcher? Probably not enough.
 
Although I agree that need varies, I believe that the usage patterns of people are gravitating toward more local storage--not less. Even if you don't keep music or movies on your iPad, the apps themselves are getting bigger and I can't believe how many people are using their iPads as cameras/video these days.
 
I can see it definitely happening in the future. Once the 32GB are cheap enough, they will use those as the base model. Just as they phased out the 8GB option from the iPhones and now use 16GB as the base model.
 
I have a 2G iPad with 16GB and find it to be woefully inadequate. Even though I am a fairly casual user, I still find myself having to delete rarely used apps, movies and music to get things to fit. 32GB would be a bare minimum if I were to upgrade.
 
Previously when Apple has added a new capacity they have dropped the lowest capacity at the next update. I believe this happened with the iPhone 3G as well as the iPod touch at some point.

Now that they've added a 128gb iPad model I would expect to see it go back down to 3 capacities next update: 32, 64, 128.
 
My first mini was a 16GB. I returned it and got a 32GB. The 32GB is working out well, but next gen I'll be considering a 64GB.
 
Stetrain said:
Previously when Apple has added a new capacity they have dropped the lowest capacity at the next update. I believe this happened with the iPhone 3G as well as the iPod touch at some point.

Now that they've added a 128gb iPad model I would expect to see it go back down to 3 capacities next update: 32, 64, 128.
Click to expand...

No way they would do that. That would cost them like $5 more, which means their profit will be hundreds of millions of dollars less. As you know, Apple is all about profit margins.

The time that they did what was best for the customer (bumping storage, introducing stuff like the Retina display) is long behind us.
 
Old Muley said:
I have a 2G iPad with 16GB and find it to be woefully inadequate. Even though I am a fairly casual user, I still find myself having to delete rarely used apps, movies and music to get things to fit. 32GB would be a bare minimum if I were to upgrade.
Click to expand...

but thats the point (for me) the difference between 16 gig and 32 gig is storing more hardly used games.

ive a 16 gb ipad 4, i use it extensively for tv and films but use Plex to stream from my computer, even when away from home as it works fine over internet.

i play a lot of music but have itunes match, a bargain since ive got 150 gigs of music so i get about 3 years of itunes match just for the cost of an external drive to back up my music,

books dont take up much space, nor do apps. photos are all in dropbox, and since dropbox doesnt have huge free space, i use box.com to store magazines and move them as and when i want them.


so the only thing that takes up space is games. i have tons of games. cant stop myself buying them, and yes then i do run into space problems so i delete games to buy new ones. at the minute i have on my ipad about 16 games, taking up most of my space. but tbh for all the 'big' games i own, i dont play them much. the games i play most are all simple and small like snooker.


so if i had a 32 gig machine, all that would be different would be that instead of having a dozen big games i dont play much, id have 32 games i dont play often. and id still be deleting things.

it is a shame that ipads dont take sd cards but tbh dropbox has pretty much filled that gap for me.
 
I have a Ipad 2 16gb and not that its useless but I am always having to delete and play around to fit stuff on. I have no music on there ( couldn't fit my itunes) and if you travel you can only keep 2/3 movies on there. The next ipad I am going with 64 or 128. Better to have too much than not enough. Of course if money is a consideration at least get 32
 
I started with a 16 GB original iPad and have moved on to a 16 GB Mini, which currently still has over 7 gigs free. It all depends on how you use it; I don't watch movies, I tend to stream TV shows, keep my ebooks in the cloud, etc. I've never once regretted buying the smallest size iPad available. Like others have said, I also delete apps I'm not using regularly from all my devices.

If I were putting music on it or using the camera, yes, I'd need more storage. But to me, that's what the iPhone is for...now THAT device I can see bumping storage capacity on the next time I upgrade. The higher res camera means I'm constantly near the 32 GB level on the phone, and I do keep about 9 GB of music on there. Even that probably isn't necessary, as I do have iTunes Match, so it doesn't *have* to be locally stored.

The ever expanding size of apps will push a need for increased storage eventually, but I don't think we're quite there yet.
 
I have a 16GB iPad mini and that works well enough for me. Admittedly I only have 1 GB free but at the time I didn't see the need to get more storage as I already had a 64 GB iPod touch, a 16 GB galaxy note and galaxy tab both with 32 GB memory cards inserted and a 32 GB nexus 7. Getting more storage seemed like over kill to me.
 
I'm using barely 8GB of my 16GB, so i hope they don't drop the 16GB option. Have the 3G/4G model and I stream all my music and video. I would get the 8GB model if it was available at a lower price! Storing large amounts of data locally is so 20th century.

Have always bought the smallest available iPhone as well and never regretted it. Except for my first iPhone, when i got the 16GB model (when the 8GB was available). I regretted that, especially when it came to resale value. Also, i got the 8GB iPhone 2G when it was released, the first 4GB model might have been pushing it a bit, don't think I could get by on that. 8GB seems to be my sweet spot for what i need.
 
The way forward is to stream music and not keep it on the device keep music stored on your device is not the fashion now.If you stream all you music then you would have all that space back so you would probably get away with a 16gb iPad
 
pommie82 said:
The way forward is to stream music and not keep it on the device keep music stored on your device is not the fashion now.If you stream all you music then you would have all that space back so you would probably get away with a 16gb iPad
Click to expand...

Yes, but doesn't streaming music use up data and end up costing more in monthly services, and additional cloud storage costs?
 
pommie82 said:
The way forward is to stream music and not keep it on the device keep music stored on your device is not the fashion now.If you stream all you music then you would have all that space back so you would probably get away with a 16gb iPad
Click to expand...

If you don't have access to wifi all the time streaming will kill your data plan in no time flat.
 
marc55 said:
So is 32GB slowly becoming the new minimum for iPads?

Thank you!
Click to expand...

For you (and for me), yes. 32GB is the minimum acceptable storage amoung for an iPad. However, for people who don't have a lot of music content and are not using Pinterest, I believe they can get by fine with 16GB.

It is possible that Apple may move to 32/64/128GB storage with the iPad5. Recall that this is what has happened for the past thirty or so years with PC's. Hard drive storage space and RAM have increased while prices have remained relatively steady. I would give it 50/50 odds will see the 16GB dropped on the iPad 5.
 
I'd say 32GB is good if you download games. I do everything with my 16 GB Mini (Shopping, Web Browsing, Games, Reading, Docs, etc.) and the only reason it gets semi-low on space is because of how big many games are.

I'd say 32GB is a very comfortable size, but if you don't download big games and whatnot, you shouldn't have much trouble with 16 GB.
 
Personally I think Apple would be wise to make 32GB the base model. Flash memmory has been dropping is cost, and I doubt it would harm the margins all that much. Being able to get a 128GB iPad for $700 would be a big seller IMHO.
 
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